[Fanzine Focus XXXIV] Ascoleth: The Last Great City

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 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 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, not all fanzines written with the Old School Renaissance in mind need to be written for a specific retroclone.

Ascoleth: The Last Great City was published in June, 2022. It is a collaborative project between Monkey Blood Design and Rabid Halfling Press, a systems-neutral weird science-fantasy fanzine that describes a city in the end times and as a toolkit provides the Game Master with numerous tables of prompts and ideas that she can use to bring it to life. It is part one of ‘The Finisterre Trilogy’, although sadly, the other two parts have yet to appear. The setting for the fanzine is a sliver of land in the eschaton, the last days, called Finisterre. On it stands an entity that is both alive and a city, a final refuge in the very uncertain times. It is so large that districts within are almost cities unto themselves, each with their own distinctive architecture and often purpose. Nominally ruled by The Lord-Executor Ampiranx III, it is the Consortium which actually runs the city, though in many cases the various districts are autonomous, some with ties to the Consortium, some with not. Finisterre itself could be a complex machine found in the dusty basement of a wizard’s tower or the ever-expanding dreamworld of a sleeping child-god, as seen from within. Only three of Ascoleth’s districts are  detailed, and like all districts in the city, they shift, rotate, and move, but there are the means included as well to create others, as the Game Master is likely to want to create more.

The three major districts are the Magitek Praecinctum, the Necrosian Borough, and the Pariah Conurbation. Each is given entries for something ‘Dominating the Skyline’, a ‘Site of Interest’, a ‘House of Worship’, and the ‘Faction in Control’, plus quick lists of its demographics ongoing problems. This is followed by a table of the district’s neighbourhoods. For example, the Necrosian Borough accommodates the city’s undead citizens, but not very well since there is of course more undead than can be supported by the district’s amenities. Living visitors are advised to wear corpse paint lest their flagrant flaunting of their living status cause offence, so there are professional corpse painters at the entrance to provide this service as well as blood banks since blood is legal tender in the Necrosian Borough. Dominating the skyline is ‘The Triangle of Tragic Truths’, a huge, inverted pyramid of bloodstone atop which is an enormous disc that turns to face the sun and so block the district and its inhabitants from direct sunlight. The ‘Hall of the Eternal Smile’ is the ‘Site of Interest’ where the undead go to meet and discuss their undeathly issues, plus attend KrptoCon, an event dedicated to magical technology related to death and undeath. The ‘House of Worship’ is ‘Rigorous Mortis’, an old, decrepit prison where the undead use the execution platform and torture chamber to ritually torture and execute each other as acts of devotion. The ‘Faction in Control’ is ‘The Gatekeepers of Yore’, a fanatical group of monarchists under Archking Akoscion XIX, a partially mummified halfling vampire, currently in a guerilla war with The Sanguinista Urban Liberation Front. Of course, the district is home to all manner of undead, plus necromancers and anyone with an interest in the dead and undead. Its ongoing problems include massive class divides, overcrowding, and the vampire insurrectionists.

The neighbourhoods of the Necrosian Borough include the Royal Quarter where too many undead royals live, leading to murderous feuds in an effort to reduce numbers and so increase space, but this is hampered by the fact that the undead are very difficult to kill. Then there is the Black Light District which should be left to the reader’s imagination!

Beyond this treatment of the three neighbourhoods, over half of Ascoleth: The Last Great City is dedicated to creation tables for the city. Tables include ‘Who Do You Bump Into?’, ‘You Took A Wrong Turn And…’, ‘Whose Face Is On That Wanted Poster?’, and more. Lastly, the ‘District Generator Tables’ enable the Game Master to create districts of her own. For example, the ‘Adventurer Generator’ might create a hook such as the Player Characters being hired to eradicate a former saint, now corrupted, from a pearlescent tower or infiltrating an illusion of the underworld inhabiting a very scary Halfling, not actually undead, but wearing corpse paint. Of course, the Game Master will need to develop these further.

Physically, Ascoleth: The Last Great City is very well laid out and engagingly written. With its splashes of red, the artwork varies from the bizarre to the grim, but it fits the strange tone of the setting.

Systemless, Ascoleth: The Last Great City would work as well with Old School Essentials, Into the Odd, Troika!, or even Numenera. The Game Master will need to provide stats and details as necessary, but the pages of Ascoleth: The Last Great City are rife with ideas and prompts that are entertainingly inventive and will form the basis of some great.