Miskatonic Monday #448: The Horror

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: The Horror

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Poul Erik Holmelund

Setting: Denmark, 1980s

Product: Scenario

What You Get: Forty-two page, 41.15 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Kidstigators do right by the Knights Templar
Plot Hook: ‘Troll’ terror at a Summer Camp gone Cthulhu

Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Kidstigators and sixteen Kidstigator portraits, one NPC, five maps and floor plans, one Mythos spell, and four Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Excellent

Pros

# First scenario to use the ‘Kidstigator’ rules from The Dare

# Good one-shot or convention scenario

# Solid, food-based investigation

# Genuinely jolly policeman

# ‘Murdertoys’ are exactly what you think they are

# iä iä Krôll´Bôll

# Possible resolutions fully explored

# Nice cover

# Now with added Citronmåne (you’re welcome and where’s my slice?)

# Pediophobia

# Teraphobia

# Ornithophobia

Cons

# Needs a light edit

# There really should be a phobia of seagulls

Conclusion

# Linear, but entertaining scenario that nicely balances the joy of childhood versus the terror of ‘trolls’!

# Pleasingly captures the wonder of childhood summer before the horror

# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] The Beholder Issue 8

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 how 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. As new fanzines have appeared, there has been an interest in the fanzines of the past, and as that interest has grown, they have become highly collectible, and consequently more difficult to obtain and write about. However, in writing about them, the reader should be aware that these fanzines were written and published between thirty and forty years ago, typically by roleplayers in their teens and twenties. What this means is that sometimes the language and terminology used reflects this and though the language and terminology is not socially acceptable today, that use should not be held against the authors and publishers unduly.

The Beholder was a British fanzine first published in April, 1979. Dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it ran to twenty-seven issues, the last being published in July, 1981. It was popular and would be awarded ‘Best Games Fanzine’ at the Games Day convention in 1980. After the final issue of The Beholder, the editors would go on to release a number of anthologies which collected content from the complete run of the fanzine such as Beholder Supplement Glossary of Magic, which collected many of the magical items which appeared in the fanzine and collated them into a series of tables for easy use by the Dungeon Master, and Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2, the first of several scenario anthologies.

The Beholder Issue No. 8 was published in October 1979. The editorial notes that the range and number of articles in the issue grows (though there is increase in page count), such as ‘Developing Campaign’ replacing ‘DMs’ Corner’. It also notes that the number of Dungeons & Dragons fanzines on the market continues to grow, pointing to the increasing popularity in the United Kingdom of Dungeons & Dragons at the time such that its fans want to get involved in the hobby beyond simple play. Both editors—Michael G. Stoner and Guy R.J. Duke—point out that The Beholder, “…[I]s the only British D&D ’zine to appear each month and always on time, while containing highly commended articles. Plus, of course, we are the cheapest ’zine around.”

The actual content begins with ‘The Anti-Paladin’. The article comments that the sub-class never seems to reach ‘official’ status, but the version here is exactly what you would expect. The Anti-Paladin can Detect Good, is immune to disease, emanates Protection from Good in a ten feet radius, can affect commands undead if he was two Levels lower, gains extra benefits from wielding an Unholy Sword, and can gain a Nightmare as a mount. Honestly, there is nothing outstanding about this version. More interesting is the ‘Monster Summoning’ article which presents a family of the Beholder, Genus Occulus. They are all descendants of the Globular Fungus, of which the Beholder itself and the Eye of Darkness are the most recent additions. The Globular Fungus is a fungus, immobile, but with a single tentacle with which it lashes out and attempts to implant spores. Its evolutionary descendent is the Eye Eater, a bulbous eye which moves around by leaping on its tentacles and then attacking its prey’s heads and sucking out of all of its vital matter through the eyes, whilst the Scuttling Orb which has spider’s legs and five eyes round its body from which can cast spell-like effects. The Eye of Darkness is the Chaotic equivalent of the Beholder, but has more teeth and does not radiate heat or cold. In addition, its touch causes Level Drain and it hates light. Originally submitted by A. Shellard, these add some variety to the concept of the Beholder and do that thing that many monsters in Dungeons & Dragons are designed to do, which is to surprise the Player Characters! There is some invention here and some coherency by making them an evolutionary family.

Traveller is one of the few other roleplaying games to be covered in the pages of The beholder. In D. Parrington’s ‘Traveller additions’, he presents expanded details of missiles from Traveller and its starship combat board game, Mayday. It describes mainly light and medium missiles and breaks down their Drive type, Technology, and what they can be fitted with. Stand missiles are light, medium missiles are so large that a ship’s turret needs to be modified and can only be fitted with a single missile. Warhead types run from minifusion to fission and fusion onto gravity bomb and antimatter bomb. There are stats for several starships—a thousand ton ‘E’ Type Cruiser, two hundred ton ‘C’ Type Corvette, one hundred ton ‘G’ Type Gun Boat, and thousand ton ‘T’ Type Transport—as well as heavy weapons like the Gasers, Plasma Bolts, Tractor Beams, Pressor Beams, and (magnetic field) Inductor. This is very much for the group that wants more detail for starship combat in Traveller. The weapons and ships are easier to use than the rules for missile construction which need to be worked through and experimented with to get right.

If you are bored with traditional Dungeons & Dragons Races, the eponymous ‘Leprechauns’ is the suggested option. The Leprechaun is cheeky, mischievous, and often annoying, with a love of wine. The Leprechaun can pick locks, has magic resistance, turn invisible once per day and cast the Ventriloquism Magic-User spell once per day. They tend to make better Thieves and Illusionists. They do not have high Dexterity or Intelligence, but low Strength and Constitution, and they must have either a Neutral or Chaotic alignment. Leprechauns are not an obvious choice, and the annoying aspect of their personality could grate very quickly.

In between, editor Guy R.J. Duke writes ‘Ficklemice’, a cartoon strip about dungeoneering mice. It is a bit cramped and a bit difficult to follow easily. Dave Richards’ ‘Snitch’ is a cartoon strip that is much easier to follow, but again is cramped. Quite literally called ‘Space Filler’, a very tiny article suggests that when selling magical items, Player Characters should not get list price and that if the item is desirable enough, the buyers who were successful might turn on the players. To which the answer is, well, yes. Similarly, ‘fearful phantasms ?’ suggests a way around an Illusionist or Magic-User casting a spell like Phantasmal Force or Polymorph Self in order to cause fear. The first is to ask if the Player Characters has seen the cause of the fear itself, sufficiently enough to be able to emulate it, and then ask if the target seen the same seen the cause of the fear? It also allows for some gradation in terms of that fear effect. Again, it is good advice. The discussion of Illusions continues later with ‘Thoughts on Illusions’. It tackles similar issues with Phantasmal Force as ‘fearful phantasms ?’, though in broader play rather than just in causing fear. The advice given is intended to prevent the players such spells by using them beyond their limits and if applied should do so.

The dungeon in the adventure is ‘Rala’s Block’. This is a four Level dungeon whose Levels ascend, built into a giant featureless stone block atop a hill by the ex-dungeoneer, Rala, to test and kill off younger dungeoneers. There are no exact guidelines as what Level Player Character the dungeon is aimed at, though it does say that a careful First Level Player Character could survive what is a challenging ‘death trap’ type dungeon. However, a mid-Level Player Character is probably better suited. This is a good mix of puzzles, traps, and monsters, though more of the first two than the last one, but this is very much a dungeon for dungeon’s sake. Which makes sense, since it is a test of sorts—but mostly a death trap for Rala’s amusement.

A. Shellard also contributes ‘Expressing Alignment’, which attempts a more accurate measurement of a Player Character or NPC’s alignment. It is plotted on a set of concentric circles with Neutral in the centre and the other alignments mapped onto the edges of the circle. The closer to the edge a character’s Alignment is, the more rigid or stronger it is. The diagram is also designed to allow easier movement that reflect radical changes in Alignment without going through true Neutral all of the time. The suggested system does complicate the Alignment system, so very much a case of a group needing to decide whether they wanted to adopt is as part of its house rules.

Penultimately, ‘INFO’ addresses some of the queries raised by the fanzine’s readers. Probably the most notable one is whether there were going to be future issues of another fanzine popular at the time, Underworld Oracle. The update and what the editors know is a bit gossipy, but it highlights the community that existed at the time around creators and editors of fanzines. Lastly, ‘Developing Campaign’, which provides ‘optional systems for your campaign’, ‘1. Archaic Colleges’ is a way in which Magic-Users can learn their spells. It is written to address this difficulty because the then newly published Advanced Dungeons & Dragons does not. In an advanced civilisation, the article’s solution is to establish colleges of magic that government can tax. There have been whole articles and supplements devoted to this subject in the years since this fanzine, but for the arcane spellcaster this is more loosely structured, enabling the Player Character or NPC to continue studying magic on a day release basis—or rather adventure release basis! Study, go adventuring, earn Experience Points sufficient to go up a Level and hopefully find enough treasure to fund learning a few more spells. This would have been reasonable solution in 1979 and more so if the other Classes had not entirely dissimilar ways and costs of gaining abilities as Levels were acquired.

Physically, The Beholder Issue No. 8 is slightly untidy in places, but readable. The layout is tight and that does make it difficult to read in places. Both illustrations and cartography are reasonable.

The Beholder Issue No. 8 notes a marked shift to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, which should no surprise given that the cost three books were then just available. It still some of the preoccupations as with Dungeons & Dragons though—Alignment, particular spell effects, character advancement, and so on—exacerbated by the publication of the then new rules. There is nothing truly outstanding in the issue, but its solutions to various issues and problems would have been read with interest and thought about and discussed, which is ultimately the point.

is interesting to read because it is a good snapshot of the hobby in 1979 and what the preoccupations of its players were. Notably more monsters and ways in which to test or surprise the players and their characters, and the eager anticipation with which the next big release from TSR, Inc. was expected. This is a solid issue, not necessarily great, but not bad either. It is interesting to see how the hobby occupies the attention of the editors and how much time they would have needed to devote to both it and the very regular releases of the fanzine.

[Fanzine Focus XLII] The Beholder Issue 7

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 how 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. As new fanzines have appeared, there has been an interest in the fanzines of the past, and as that interest has grown, they have become highly collectible, and consequently more difficult to obtain and write about. However, in writing about them, the reader should be aware that these fanzines were written and published between thirty and forty years ago, typically by roleplayers in their teens and twenties. What this means is that sometimes the language and terminology used reflects this and though the language and terminology is not socially acceptable today, that use should not be held against the authors and publishers unduly.

The Beholder was a British fanzine first published in April, 1979. Dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it ran to twenty-seven issues, the last being published in July, 1981. It was popular and would be awarded ‘Best Games Fanzine’ at the Games Day convention in 1980. After the final issue of The Beholder, the editors would go on to release a number of anthologies which collected content from the complete run of the fanzine such as Beholder Supplement Glossary of Magic, which collected many of the magical items which appeared in the fanzine and collated them into a series of tables for easy use by the Dungeon Master, and Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2, the first of several scenario anthologies.

The Beholder Issue No. 7 was published in October 1979. It is the post-DragonMeet II issue and the editors noted that nobody approached them at the event to point out the ‘deliberate mistake’ hidden in the previous issue. They do explain what it was, but you really have to know your Dungeons & Dragons spells to have spotted it. The issue is also the much-heralded ‘SUPER MONSTER ISSUE !’. To that end, its contents start with ‘The Super Monster competition results’. Some seventy-five entries were received and some twenty of those are printed in the first third of the issue. The article leads with the winners. First place went to Peter M. Bright for the ‘Relkor’, a distorted human head with spider’s legs that gnaws off the head of its victims and then shoves its legs into the neck to control the body with the head on atop the stump. It can attack in surprise by leaping from the neck and it keeps its treasure below the neck. Dave Davies won second place with the ‘Stone Creature’. It is an ogre-like creature that can switch back and forth between a flesh form and a stone statue form and then use stealth to pick off its prey. (The issue’s editors suggest buffing it with a stealth ability.) The ‘Bleeder’ from Peter Williams is a version of the Rust Monster that feeds off the iron in blood and so when it bites and feeds slowly off its victims, they also suffer anaemia. These three definitely deserve their top three placement, because the rest are pretty much of a muchness. For example, the ‘Greebly’ by Andrew Whitcombe is a cold- or dungeon-dwelling ape that hates fire; James McRobert’s ‘Firefly’ is an insect so hot that its breath ignites into a jet of flame; and the undead ‘Singing Shadow’ by Martin Stollery can make any sound, throw its voice, and form into any shape.

‘Dragonmeet II’ is a convention report by the editors on the London-based convention and barring the fact that the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition was on sale for the first time, there was little to enjoy at the event. They complain that other Dungeon Masters can be nasty when it comes to running the game. Both editors played part of G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King and it resulted in a total party kill, whilst the ‘D&D competition’ was described as absurd, with both a Paladin and an Anti-Cleric being in the same party, suggesting that the party should open a door was taken as the player’s character going through the door and almost dying, monsters that were actually other monsters, and arbitrary rulings. It just shows you that not every convention game was guaranteed to be good back in 1979, just as it is not today.

‘The Goblin Complex’ answers the fanzine’s readers’ request for a dungeon after the wilderness adventures of the previous two issues. It sets out to be what it calls a ‘coherent’ design with rooms that have a purpose and monsters that have reasons to be there and potential consequences to the actions of the Player Characters. In other words, this is not a ‘zoo’ dungeon with the underground complex being populated at random. It is suggested that the dungeon be run with miniatures and floorplans and gives some answers to questions raised in the playtest, such as “How far does the sound of a battle travel?” and “How easy is it to get up after being knocked down in heavy armour?”. It is designed for a party of six Player Characters of Third Level. The background to the dungeon is that after successful riads by Goblins from the mountains, retaliatory action against them has forced them to flee and many bands have dug refuges into the mountain. The scenario describes one of these. The Dungeon Master is warned that the Goblins will act intelligently, will surrender if forced to (rather than dying in a suicide charge), and will ransom prisoners—though the Hobgoblins are more likely to sacrifice them to their god, ‘Gax’. There is the occasional bit of tactical advice too as to what the Player Characters’ best course of action is, such as using the Cleric spell of Silence or the Wizard spell Sleep to ease their entry into the complex unannounced. It is a serviceable dungeon that in places does undermine the intended coherency such as the Hobgoblins wanting to sacrifice captives (though the Player Characters could persuade Goblins to ransom them instead, potentially leading to a squabble between the Goblins and Hobgoblins), there being pet giant scorpions and tigers, martial arts Hobgoblins, and even a (young) Black Dragon being effectively the last room in the dungeon. It is still playable and its design intent is obvious and well meant if not quite clearly carried through.

There is no playtest report of ‘The Goblin Complex’, but instead, the ‘Play Test’ is about an adventure set in a samurai castle. Only a page in length, it depicts a brutal raid on the castle to capture the Samurai King that ultimately goes wrong. The write-up does not outstay its welcome, but without the context of the adventure itself, it lacks context.

The publication and availability of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition mentioned previously in ‘Dragonmeet II’ leads to ‘The… AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide – A Precis’ by co-editor, Guy R. J. Duke. It provides an overview of then the new book and notes rules chances such as the Monk now attacking on the Cleric/Druid table rather than the Thieves table, praises the ‘secret’ section on magic for the Dungeon Master, which expands the rules for magical research, potion concoction, scroll preparation, and more. The precis is less enamoured of the appendices randomly generating dungeons and wilderness as experienced Dungeon Masters are less likely to want them, but found that the alphabetical listing of the monsters with their attack and defence modes, Hit Dice, Experience Point rewards, and so on, to be very useful. Duke concludes by saying, “I can only advise you to buy the Guide as you can. The hardback version is well produced with impressive illustrations and a few jokes to relieve the overwhelming impression that the book has.” He continues, “Indeed, who can afford not to buy the Guide; it was guaranteed as a sell-out since its very conception. Those who don’t move with the time will be left far behind. The Dungeon Master’s Guide is not a thing to miss out on. Compared with the primary rules and its additional booklets of Greyhawk etc. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is superior and above all cohesive.” Here then, what you have is that shift away from what Dungeons & Dragons was, which was rough and modular, to more coherent, singular point of reference, as seen through the eyes of a player and commentator.

The last article in the issue is ‘Magic Jar’, a collection of new magic items. The entries in the article include Fazzan’s Howling Skull, a magical skull which can be set as a surveillance device and which will howl and cause fear if any intruders are detected; the Cursed Illusion Sword which will make its wielder think it is a Dancing Sword; and a Ram Head of Terrible Destruction, a tough skull of a ram that if applied to a battering ram is more effective than a Horn of Blasting! These are all suitable additions to setting with a lot of magical items.

Physically, The Beholder Issue No. 7 is slightly untidy in places, but readable. The layout is tight and that does make it difficult to read in places. Both illustrations and cartography are reasonable.

The Beholder Issue No. 7 is interesting to read because it is a good snapshot of the hobby in 1979 and what the preoccupations of its players were. Notably more monsters and ways in which to test or surprise the players and their characters, and the eager anticipation with which the next big release from TSR, Inc. was expected. This is a solid issue, not necessarily great, but not bad either. It is interesting to see how the hobby occupies the attention of the editors and how much time they would have needed to devote to both it and the very regular releases of the fanzine.

1976: Monsters! Monsters!

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, and the new edition of that, Dungeons & Dragons, 2024, in the year of the game’s fiftieth 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.

—oOo—

By the end of 1976, Ken St. Andre had published three roleplaying games, two of which can be argued were genuinely ground-breaking. The first was Tunnels & Trolls, designed as a lighter, easier, and faster alternative to Dungeons & Dragons and published in 1975. It would be followed in 1976 by Starfaring, the first Science Fiction roleplaying game, which like Tunnels & Trolls, was published by Flying Buffalo Inc. Then, there was Monsters! Monsters!, also published in 1976, which inverted the by now traditional style of fantasy. That is, of great heroes descending into dungeons and defeating monsters and solving puzzles and returning with the treasure looted from below. Monsters! Monsters! was a roleplaying game for “When YOU want to be monster!” because instead of the players roleplaying heroes, they roleplayed the monsters. As Dragons, Goblins, Black Hobbits, Gorgons, Mummies, Snollygosters, Slime-Mutants, Night-Gaunts, Giant Slugs, Unicorns, Shoggoths, and Human Scum, the Player Characters—or rather Player Monsters—could swarm up out of their dungeon homes or other hidey holes and go on the rampage and take their revenge on the Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Fairies, and Hobbits living in whatever village, town, city, castle, palace, or plantation that the Game Master has created. Monsters! Monsters! was, as St. Andre’s co-author, Jim ‘Bear’ Peters, intimates in the book, a call for the equal rites of your dungeon-dwelling monster.

Monsters! Monsters! is both a standalone roleplaying game and a supplement for Tunnels & Trolls, expanding upon the details of enemies faced by heroes in the latter, but does not require Tunnels & Trolls to be played. Where Tunnels & Trolls is likely to be useful is the expanded spell section since those given in Monsters! Monsters! only go up to Level Four. Notably, Monsters! Monsters! was not published by Flying Buffalo Inc. Rather, it was published by Metagaming Concepts, best known for publishing Steve Jackson’s first designs, particularly Ogre, G.E.V., and The Fantasy Trip. It was subsequently published by Flying Buffalo Inc. and more recently in expanded editions by Trollhalla Press Unlimited. As the editorial explains, the roleplaying game’s origins lay in a catchphrase that grew out a cry of fear and then a battle cry in game. Its ethos was simple.

“So it was only natural that eventually the monsters should come out of their tunnels and dungeons to strike back at the smug world of the Men, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, etc., who had been so greedily despoiling their homes and treasures. This turning of the tables, to play monsters as protagonists, has proven to be even more hilarious than the original games. A monster lives by a completely different code of ethics, affording a splendid opportunity to get rid of the impure and perverted impulses which affect most of us – impulses it’s hard to express while playing a hero. Monsters get experience points for wanton cruelty and destruction above and beyond the call of duty.”

In other words, if this was Dungeons & Dragons, then Monsters! Monsters! lets the players roleplay evil (or Chaotic or Chaotic Evil) characters. Unlike Tunnels & Trolls, the aim in Monsters! Monsters! is not to accumulate treasure take from monsters underground—though recovering it from those annoying dungeon interlopers is bound to be very nice—but to “…[P]ile up “experience points”. Then, “The more experience points a character gains, the more powerful it becomes, and the more interesting are its adventures. Also, the higher levels your character reaches, the more you (the real person out there, reading this) will be respected by your fellow players. As long as you keep your characters alive and gaining experience, you are winning. When you overextend yourself and a character dies, that is your loss.” So, Monsters! Monsters! is in effect, the anti-roleplaying game. Evil Player Characters, revenge and rampage as core game play, and as a roleplaying game, there are actual winners.

Morally, it is another matter. Monsters going on a rampage and enacting revenge is not moral. Admittedly, there is not a list of ‘evil’ acts that the Player Monsters will be rewarded with Experience Points for enacting, though a Player Monster will gain Experience Points for engorging itself (it does not say engorging itself on what though…), taking valuable captives—especially if particularly handsome or beautiful, and for general acts of destructiveness. So, the Player Monsters are not heroes. Nor is Monsters! Monsters! in any way introspective as later roleplaying games exploring the roleplaying of monsters would examine. Tonally though, Monsters! Monsters! is tongue in cheek, retaining the humour of Tunnels & Trolls, but with a darker edge. Further, as “…[A] splendid opportunity to get rid of the impure and perverted impulses which affect most of us – impulses it’s hard to express while playing a hero.”, it is cathartic, a chance for some manic mayhem, even a palate cleanser. Though likely no more than that, given its limited scope for extended play. A campaign of Monsters! Monsters! is likely to get only so far before a group tire of it or in game, a bigger force of heroes turns up to smash the evil threat represented by the Player Monsters.

Monsters! Monsters! includes everything necessary to play. Rules for Player Monster creation, combat and magic, Experience Points, and more. There is even a complete location—Woodsedge Inn and its surrounding cottages and wilderness—that is ripe for the Player Monsters to attack. Most of the inhabitants are Zero Level ‘Monster Fodder’, but there are a handful of Third and Fourth Level inhabitants who pose much more of a threat and a challenge to the Player Monsters. If any of them can rally the ordinary locals living near by the Woodsedge Inn, the Player Monsters could have a tougher challenge on their claws…

As with a Player Character in Tunnels & Trolls, the details of a Player Monster in Monsters! Monsters! can be recorded on three-by-five-inch cards. A Player Monster has six Prime Attributes. These are Strength, Intelligence, Luck, Constitution, Dexterity, and Charisma. Unlike a Player Character in Tunnels & Trolls, a Player Monster does not need to note the amount gold it has and pretty much starts with equipment needed—depending upon the monster type, some monsters do lack arms and hands. So, he may have some arms and armour and some languages too if his Intelligence is high enough. What he does not have is a Class. Thus, he cannot be a Warrior, Magic-User, or Rogue. Instead, he has a Monster type. Monsters! Monsters! lists some fifty-two monster types, which a player can either pick from or draw a card from an ordinary deck of playing cards to determine which type.

The list of Monster types includes the usual ones you would expect from both fantasy fiction and roleplaying fantasy. So, Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, Minotaur, and Dark Elves all the way up to Dragons and Balrogs! However, Monsters! Monsters! draws from a weirder and more diverse range of sources. These include the ‘Demon’ from L. Sprague de Camp’s The Fallible Fiend; the ‘Shadowjack’ from Roger Zelazny’s Jack of Shadows; the Shoggoth from At the Mountains of Madness and the Night-Gaunt from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, both by H.P. Lovecraft; the ‘Snark’ from Lewis Carroll’s ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ (misspelt as ‘shark’ in its description, so no, a player cannot roleplay a shark in Monsters! Monsters!); and the ‘Tsathoggua’ from Clark Ashton Smith’s ‘The Tale of Satampra Zeiros’. Another oddity, not taken from fiction is the ‘Snollygoster’, meaning a shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician, but here a hybrid between a large cross-eyed dog and a half-truncated crocodile. The last entry aside, Monsters! Monsters! would have broken copyright laws in 1976 when it was published and would still do so today!

Creating a Player Monster is an easy process. A player picks a Monster Type or draws a playing card to determine what it is. The Monster Type will primarily determine the attribute modifiers that need to be applied after the player has rolled three six-sided dice for each. The modifiers can lead to a wide range of attribute values depending upon the Monster Type. This includes caps on maximum attribute values and in the case of Charisma, replacing them entirely because the Monster Type is so fearsome!

Name: Glurk

Type: Slime-Mutant

Strength 28 Intelligence 05 Luck 03

Constitution 60 Dexterity 13 Charisma °

Combat Adds: +8

Speed: Slow

Monsters! Monsters! is a played as a series of turns, of which there are two types. The first type is general in nature and last about five minutes, during which time a Player Monster can move, loot, or pillage an area or room, or simply wait, whilst the Game Master will check for wandering monsters. The other is the combat turn, which lasts an entire minute.

Mechanically, Monsters! Monsters! is essentially Tunnels & Trolls. Thus, there are two main rules. One is the Saving Throw, rolled to avoid a trap, to dodge a missile weapon attack, to withstand a poisonous brew, and so on, and it is always rolled using a character’s Luck. The target number is dependent on the ‘Danger Level’ rather than the Level of the dungeon as Tunnels & Trolls. This is twenty at Danger Level #1, twenty-five at Danger Level #2, and so on. The Player Monster’s Luck is subtracted from the Danger Level and this is the target number that the player has to roll equal to or exceed to overcome. The roll is on two six-sided dice and doubles allow the player to roll and add again.

Combat in Monsters! Monsters! is like that of Tunnels & Trolls. Both sides, the Player Monster and the heroes or mobs it is facing, are rolling handfuls of six-sided dice. In Tunnels & Trolls, the number of dice rolled for a Player Character is determined the weapons he wields plus an ‘Add’ value if he has high Strength, Luck, and Dexterity. Then for Monsters, it is their Monster Rating. Monsters! Monsters! treats each Player Monster as a Player Character and apart from mobs, also treats the NPC enemies as Player Characters. This makes it more complex in a than Tunnels & Trolls. A Player Monster who lacks hands and so cannot use weapons, instead will roll a number of dice derived from its Strength attribute. The lower result is subtracted from the higher result and that is the number of hit points of damage the losing side suffers. This is deducted from the Constitution of the NPC or Player Monster. If worn or carried, armour and shields will protect against incoming hit points, but armour will be damaged in the process. The rules take into account unarmed combat, the bigger weapons wielded by bigger creatures, movement, speed, and so on. Combat is decently explained and it helps that there is a detailed example of it in action.

Player Monsters can learn magic, but cannot make magic staves. Only ‘good’ Magic-Users can make magic staves, so if a Player Monster wants to gain the benefit of the lowered cost of casting magic using a magic staff, it will have steal one or kill a Magic-User and take his. Spells have a cost in the caster’s actual Strength Primary Ability to cast, which then has to regenerate. A Player Monster pays the cost of the spell if it wants to learn it, so there are limits on what spells it knows. This though, is not clearly explained. The spells included only go up to Fourth Level, and a copy of Tunnels & Trolls is needed for spells beyond that. Some Player Monsters will automatically know various spells, such as Demons putting Bats Wings on any other creature; Dragons are immune to spells cast by anyone less intelligence than themselves; and various Monsters have innate spells such as Wise Disguise for the Ogre and Vampires get Oh boy obey, Going Batty, and Ha, Ha, Ya Mist Me.

Physically, Monsters! Monsters! is presented well enough. It is readable and the artwork is excellent. The Maps are reasonable.

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Monsters! Monsters! was not widely reviewed at the time of its original or later publication. Jon Freeman in The Playboy Winner’s Guide to Board Games (Playboy Paperpacks, 1979) said, “Monsters! Monsters! (Metagaming) is Tunnels & Trolls in reverse: Players take the part of various monsters and evil creatures and get points for rape, pillage, and slaughter. It’s an irresistible idea that could be adapted readily to any FRP system.”

Ronald Pehr reviewed the roleplaying game was in The Space Gamer Number 34 (December, 1980) in ‘Capsule Reviews’. He said, “Necessarily and deliberately, there is a lot left to the referee’s imagination. More so than any other FRP game, if he doesn’t take charge the proceedings give way to meaningless slaughter. It is a constant challenge to provide a challenge to the monsters.” He was highly critical of the combat system, describing it as boring as it was fairly easy to determine who would win before any fight and suggested substituting a different system. He concluded by saying, “MONSTERS! MONSTERS! is a good game for beginners, or anyone who wants to be a troll, but experienced gamers who enjoy complex campaign games offering more than bloodlust won’t find what they want here.”

—oOo—

Monsters! Monsters! is innovative. It does make you think about fantasy roleplaying from the enemy’s perspective by casting you in a different role. However, it does not make you think too deeply—as similar and later roleplaying games would—since the roleplaying game is about the monsters’ revenge and everything to do with it. That and the lack morality does have the potential to shift the play of the game into a much darker place in terms of story and Player Monster actions. That shift may not necessarily happen, since Monsters! Monsters! does not possess scope for long term play, more likely a one shot, possibly a mini-campaign at best. Where that shift does happen, the place will vary from group to group and today, would definitely require a discussion as to where the place is and what acts that the Player Monsters might carry out are acceptable. This does not mean that the ideas in Monsters! Monsters! are invalid, but that they have been explored with more sensitivity in more recent roleplaying game designs. Nevertheless, Monsters! Monsters! got there first and upended our ideas about fantasy roleplaying.

[Fanzine Focus XLI] The Beholder Issue 6

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 how 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. As new fanzines have appeared, there has been an interest in the fanzines of the past, and as that interest has grown, they have become highly collectible, and consequently more difficult to obtain and write about. However, in writing about them, the reader should be aware that these fanzines were written and published between thirty and forty years ago, typically by roleplayers in their teens and twenties. What this means is that sometimes the language and terminology used reflects this and though the language and terminology is not socially acceptable today, that use should not be held against the authors and publishers unduly.

The Beholder was a British fanzine first published in April, 1979. Dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it ran to twenty-seven issues, the last being published in July, 1981. It was popular and would be awarded ‘Best Games Fanzine’ at the Games Day convention in 1980. After the final issue of The Beholder, the editors would go on to release a number of anthologies which collected content from the complete run of the fanzine such as Beholder Supplement Glossary of Magic, which collected many of the magical items which appeared in the fanzine and collated them into a series of tables for easy use by the Dungeon Master, and Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2, the first of several scenario anthologies.

The Beholder Issue No. 6 was published in September 1979. It is heralded as the DragonMeet II edition and even has a competition that would be run at the convention. The editors—Michael Stoner and Guy Duke—implore readers to submit ides for the forthcoming monster issue, likely to be Issue 7 or Issue 8, but otherwise, the issue covers a broad of Dungeons & Dragons-related topics. There are dungeons and adventures, monsters and more. This issue is very much a grab bag of topics and articles, and so varies in quality. It is not entirely clear as to who wrote what in the issue.

The first article is ‘Sounds’. This explores the role of generic sounds in dungeons and their possible effects. They range from ‘Laughter’ and ‘Howling’ to ‘Singing’ and ‘Bangs’. The possible effects are obvious, such as ‘Groaning’ making the Player Characters uneasy and if a Saving Throw versus magic is failed, imposing a penalty on to hit rolls, and even lowering their Morale. It feels overdone, but the effects could be lessened essentially to provide atmosphere in a dungeon. This is followed by ‘Runes’, which is interesting because it is not simply a reiteration of classic Norse Runes done for Dungeons & Dragons Dwarves or Elves. Essentially, they are one-use magical gold runes that when slapped onto a surface have particular effects. For example, ‘Rune of Tremors’ is slapped on the floor or ground, and when it vanishes the ground begins to shake, slightly at first, and then with increasing intensity, causing localised earthquake. A ‘Rune of Resurrection’, which is an evil run, will restore someone to life, but will turn one of the undead to dust! Weirdly, Runes are clever and will actually try to teleport away if someone tries to identify magically, or even activate itself if it has an effect that would work that way. There are some intriguing ideas here, but the ramifications of the way in which they are set-up are not as fully developed as they could be.

The monsters in ‘Monster Summoning’ are not particularly interesting. They include the Chameleonmen, evil humanoids that have all the abilities of a Chameleon; the Giant Chameleon, a ten-foot version, but otherwise the same as the normal reptile apart from the powerful tongue which as a stun effect; similarly, the Giant Snail; the Tarhospehk is a bovine creature with a human face and ivory horns summoned to guard ancient tombs, burial barge, and pyramids; the Living Hole which lies in wait for the unwary, waiting for them to fall in and dissolve in the acid at the bottom; the Mushroom which uses its head to attack; the Sound Eater, which looks like the demon, Juiblex, and uses its tentacles to suck up sound and so grow Hit Die by Hit Die; and the Flame Spirit. None of the monsters really stand out and ultimately feel as if they should be thrown into a table of random monsters rather than be used to populate a setting, let alone a dungeon. The Giant Snail and the Tarhospehk are attributed to Barney Sloan later in the issue.

‘DM’s Corner’ is the first of a series new to The Beholder. This gives good advice for the then prospective Dungeon Master such as placing tougher monsters deeper into the dungeon, theming levels if not the whole dungeon, make the dungeon tough for the players and their characters, that monsters do not always wants to fight to death, and ensure that it is fun to play. It gives a checklist for the Dungeon Master to work through prior to the campaign, much like a ‘Session Zero’, and also an example of play in a living dungeon as well as an analysis of it. The advice is solid and would have been useful at the time, but would likely have been repeated at the time as it subsequently has. The example of play and its analysis is interesting as it illustrates how the monsters in the example, a tribe of Kobolds, are acting intelligently and used the Player Characters’ mistakes against them. Overall, good advice for 1979, and solid advice today, if familiar.

There are two scenarios in The Beholder Issue No. 6. The first is ‘Micro-Dungeon’, a well-designed little Kobold lair whose occupants make good use of their terrain. So, there are rocks that they can roll down a slope onto any intruders, a big Kobold hides in ambush ready to block of their movement with a Wand of Web, and so on. Apart from a group of Living Holes, which are a much deadlier threat, this is a low Level addition that could be run as is, or added to an existing dungeon without too much difficulty.

If ‘Micro-Dungeon’ is serviceable, then ‘Of Brae-Land and Wold’ is a much more sophisticated and interesting affair. Designed for Player Characters of Third to Fifth Level, it is a Tolkienesque pastiche directly inspired by the flight of the Hobbits from Bree eastwards towards to Weathertop as detailed in The Fellowship of the Ring. The scenario is a hex-crawl across the region north of the road, starting at the village of Brae-bank, with the Player Characters as agents of the Gods having to contend with ‘The Evil Forces of Static Economy of Brae-land and Wold’. Or simply, the Foe. They will be sent out again and again by the mysterious Wayfarer (and definitely not Aragon, and nor is the fake Wayfarer who attempts to ambush them) each time to find one of the three ‘Forces’, artefacts that they need to cast into the Spring of Romen and so help them defeat ‘The Evil Forces of Static Economy of Brae-land and Wold’. The Player Characters will be harried along the way by ‘Black Riders’ as they travel back and forth.

‘Of Brae-Land and Wold’ is expansive, but not as easy to run as it could be. Although there is advice on running it, the scenario is densely presented and difficult to parse and so challenging for the Dungeon Master to present to her players. It does not help that the maps provided for the scenario are a little too difficult to read in the case of the area map and in the case of the other two, are not of the adventuring locations for the scenario, but of notable villages in the scenario’s version of not-Middle-earth. Which means that Dungeon Master has to work harder to visualise the adventuring locations and try impart that to her players. Given the influence of Tolkien and Middle-earth on Dungeons & Dragons, it is no surprise to see a scenario like this appear in a fanzine, but it is just a little too ambitious. Lastly, in keeping with Middle-earth and Tolkien, there is very little treasure to be found and so the scenario recommends that the Game Master reward the Player Characters with a generous Experience Point bonus as recompense.

Surprisingly, given that it is a fanzine, what The Beholder does not have is a letters page. A letters page can be a boon and a bane. It can help foster a sense of community around the fanzine and it is a good way to fill a page or two of each issue, but the content has to be carefully curated lest it devolve into a fractious bearpit. The Beholder Issue No. 6 introduces a ‘Letters’ page. Kept to a single page, it is not so much a letters page as a ‘Questions & Answers’ page in response to some of the feedback that the editors have received. The answers in turn explain why a month is not put on each issue (because the editors wanted to avoid issues slipping from schedule and to avoid dating issues); why the fanzine does not do dungeon write-ups, that is, write-ups of a group exploring a dungeon (popular at the time, and the reason the editors had not included them because it was something another fanzine, Underground Oracle, was renowned for and they did not want to step on, but with that then being no more, dungeon write-ups would be included in future issues); and the call for more dungeons, especially competition dungeons (the editors say that the dungeons are popular, but appear to want to include non-dungeon scenarios too, and planned to include competition dungeons in the future). Oddly, no one letter writer is named and the result is not very much not what you would expect a traditional letters page to be.

‘Info’ is really an extension of the editorial inside the front cover, highlighting upcoming events and giving some corrections. The penultimate article ‘Alignment’ highlights how Alignment is the most controversial part of Dungeons & Dragons, and so the article gives some suggestions as how the editors play them. This is with tight interpretations of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition’s Alignment. Thus, Chaotic Evil is “One for psychopaths.”, whereas Chaotic Neutral is easy in that a Player Character of this Alignment act randomly, his player roll for choices and actions at each and every turn. Lawful Good is described as, “…[p]robably the most sickening of alignments.” as its adherents are typical nice guys. The result is an article that is likely to be as controversial as any other on the subject, especially given the rigidity of it interpretations.

The issue comes to a close with ‘Mini-Review’. This is a thumbnail review of the classic, S1 Tomb of Horrors. It opens with, “TSR continue to turn out dungeons at an impressive rate. Of these the best so far is, without doubt, S1 Tomb of Horrors.” It highlights the need for high-Level Player Characters and says that, “This is a thinking man's dungeon, packed full of tricks and traps many of which are fatal if tackled wrongly.” The review is short, and more helpful than insightful. S1 Tomb of Horrors is, of course, one of the most reviewed and analysed of scenarios for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. It is interesting to see what someone thought about the scenario at the time, but does not add anything of note to the discourse about the scenario.

Physically, The Beholder Issue No. 6 is slightly untidy in places, but readable. The layout is tight and that does make it difficult to read in places. The illustrations are reasonable, but the cartography, certainly for the scenario, ‘Of Brae-Land and Wold’, does not support the issue as well as it should. The cover is notable as having been drawn by Simon Washbourne, later designer of roleplaying games such as Lashings of Ginger Beer.

The Beholder has a high reputation for content that is of good quality and playable and in coming back to these issues, it is clear that these early issues do not yet meet that reputation. There are highlights in any issue, but not yet the consistency of that reputation, and The Beholder Issue No. 6 reflects that as a whole. This is because there are no real highlights in the issue and the potential highlight, the scenario ‘Of Brae-Land and Wold’, fails to meet the ambitions of its authors. The Beholder Issue No. 6 is possibly worth picking over for some of its ideas, such as ‘Runes’, but this is only a serviceable issue at best.

Miskatonic Monday #385: The Grindhouse: Volume 4

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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The Grindhouse: Volume 4 is a duology—a ‘double feature’—of scenarios within the grindhouse genre of cinema—low-budget horror, splatter, and exploitation films for adults which had their heyday in the seventies. It is a sequel to The Grindhouse: Ultimate Collection – Vol. 1-3, and like that anthology presents short scenarios that can be played in a single session. However, unlike the scenarios in the anthology, the two presented in The Grindhouse: Volume 4 are not locked room situations. Nevertheless, they are still action and horror focused and involving bloody and brutal horror. Each scenario is presented in full colour, comes with its own set of pre-generated Investigators, and follows the same format. This consists of ‘Prelude’, ‘Objectives’, ‘Secrets’, ‘Cast’, ‘Signs’, ‘Threats’, and ‘Changes’. The ‘Prelude’ sets up and explains the scenario, the ‘Objectives’ the Player Characters’ involvement, ‘Secrets’ reveals what is really going on, ‘Cast’ lists minor NPCs, ‘Signs’ details clues which can be found, ‘Threats’ the dangers both Mythos and mundane, and ‘Changes’ the major events which occur during the scenario.

The first of the two scenarios in The Grindhouse: Volume 4 open with ‘Nazi Bikers Must Die!’. As the title suggests, this is definitely a scenario that is far from the traditional Jazz Age, tweeds and pipes-style of Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying. As is made clear on the duology’s back cover, this is not, “…[Y]our typical Call of Cthulhu scenarios where some classy, well-dressed investigator sips tea and pours over leather books in some wood panelled library.” Instead, this is a muscular, bruising brawl of a scenario that ends in a knockdown bar fight and a showdown to prevent a summoning in dusty New Mexico, not all that far from Roswell. It takes place in the sleepy town of Dexter, where the Player Characters, the members of a biker gang called ‘The Devil’s Pistons’ ride into town in search of a book. They have been commissioned to intimidate or persuade a local dealer in antiquities and rare books to sell an eighth century Sumerian manuscript called The Eshnunna Rubbings. It appears to be a simple job, well within The Devil’s Pistons’ capabilities and they have been promised a solid pay-out.

Unfortunately, things begin to look bad for the Player Characters when ‘The Reichers’—a rival gang whose members’ bikes, clothes, and bodies are emblazoned in neo-Nazi symbols—rides into town. By the time the Player Characters get to the bookseller, it is clear that he does not have the book, but with some due diligence, they can learn that it is in the possession of a local bar owner, a friend of the bookseller. Fortunately, the Tread Mark bar is the kind of rough establishment where the Player Characters like to hang out. Unfortunately, so do ‘The Reichers’ and add in a Jewish occultist hell bent on revenge and what you get is knockdown, stand-up barroom brawl that Robert Rodriguez would be proud to stage.

In some ways, this is a nasty scenario, a dirty mix of Nazis, Nazi ideology expressed by the NPCs, occultism, and a criminal biker gang—and it is the members of that criminal biker gang that the players roleplay. To be fair, the scenario clearly advises that it is not for everyone and plus, the bikers of ‘The Devil’s Pistons’ are not evil themselves, just happy riding alongside and over the edge of the law and none of them are without a conscience. Further, the scenario is fun and the Player Characters get to punch Nazis—a lot! This is a very physical scenario, involving far more combat than most scenarios for Call of Cthulhu. Given that, a few tweaks to adjust to Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos might be worth considering and the big barroom brawl would also work with miniatures and a map given its focus on combat. Lastly, and as an aside, the scenario does miss a trick by not being set in the town of Castronegro from the scenario, ‘The Secret of Castronegro’, found in the Cthulhu Companion – Ghastly adventures & Erudite Lore.

‘Cold as Hell’, the second scenario shifts to the New England of Lovecraft Country and the long-blighted town of Dunwich in the heart of winter. It takes place in The Wayward Inn, a historic building in the heart of the town, where contractors employed to carry out some necessary renovations have made an important and of course, dangerous, discovery in the building’s cellars. The Player Characters are “private couriers of unusual items” hired to collect the item that was discovered during the initial work and deliver it to the archaeology department at Miskatonic University. Since they work across New England, they are pretty much used to transporting the weirdest of items, no questions asked. There is a fair bit of backstory and set-up before it is revealed what is going on.

Very quickly, the Player Characters and the patrons of The Wayward Inn find themselves under siege by members of the Dunwich community dressed with no regard for the frigid temperatures and hellbent obtaining the item that the Player Characters have come to collect and committing as much bloody mayhem and inflicting as much suffering as they can in the process. There is a handful scenes to set the situation up and highlight the cruelty of the threat that the Player Characters face, but after that, the Keeper is feel to proceed however she wants the monstrous Dunwichers to act.

‘Cold as Hell’ is a trapped room, survival horror scenario, though there is nothing to stop the Player Characters from making a run for it in their Chevy Impala. There are some secrets to be found in, or rather below, the inn, but they will not really help the Player Characters. The scenario is ably detailed and combines elements of John Carpenter’s The Thing from Another World with a classic zombie film, but it never rises above being okay for what it does. There is familiarity to it, to its set-up, and to its pacing. There is nothing to stop the players embracing that familiarity and playing along with it, but unlike ‘Nazi Bikers Must Die!’, none of those players are going to come away from playing ‘Cold as Hell’ shouting, “Hell, yeah!”.

In addition, ‘Cold as Hell’ gives the Keeper a lot of NPCs to maintain a track of and whilst there four pre-generated Player Characters for the scenario, four feels like too many for their backstory and occupation.

The duology comes to a close with rules for vehicle chases—since either scenario could involve a vehicle chase of some kind—and ‘News and Culture: 1973-74’, a quick guide to what the background period was like and what was happening, particularly in the USA. Both are useful in their way.

Physically, The Grindhouse: Volume 4 is decently presented. It is well written, and it decently illustrated throughout. In fact, some of the artwork is very good. The cartography is also good throughout. of the two, ‘Nazi Bikers Must Die!’ is the easier to prepare.

The Grindhouse: Volume 4 is a duology of two halves. One is a little too icy and lacks that certain spark on the page. The other is a grab ’em by the cojones, stone-cold dust-up in the sands of New Mexico that will have the players cheering on the action and their bikers pounding on the Nazis in a thriller of a showdown.  

[Fanzine Focus XL] The Beholder Issue 5

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 how 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. As new fanzines have appeared, there has been an interest in the fanzines of the past, and as that interest has grown, they have become highly collectible, and consequently more difficult to obtain and write about. However, in writing about them, the reader should be aware that these fanzines were written and published between thirty and forty years ago, typically by roleplayers in their teens and twenties. What this means is that sometimes the language and terminology used reflects this and though the language and terminology is not socially acceptable today, that use should not be held against the authors and publishers unduly.

The Beholder was a British fanzine first published in April, 1979. Dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it ran to twenty-seven issues, the last being published in July, 1981. It was popular and would be awarded ‘Best Games Fanzine’ at the Games Day convention in 1980. After the final issue of The Beholder, the editors would go on to release a number of anthologies which collected content from the complete run of the fanzine such as Beholder Supplement Glossary of Magic, which collected many of the magical items which appeared in the fanzine and collated them into a series of tables for easy use by the Dungeon Master, and Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2, the first of several scenario anthologies.

The Beholder Issue No. 5 was probably published in August 1979, given that the fanzine was published monthly and on a regular basis throughout its run. The issue’s concerns are typical of the period for a fanzine devoted to Dungeons & Dragons—problems with different aspects of the roleplaying game and possible solutions, new monsters, new spells, an adventure, and so on. The editors—Michael Stoner and Guy Duke—implore readers to submit ides for the forthcoming monster issue, likely to be Issue 8 to coincide with Games Day V and note that, “In a few weeks the long-awaited DM’s Handbook will be on sale. Watch out for a review of it in issue 7. There is no doubt that it will have a large impact on the way many people play D&D , and will most probably alter several basic parts of the game. We hope to be able to “move with the times” and cater for the many new players who will be coming into D&D because of this (just as many started when the “Basic Rulebook” first appeared). However, if you still play “old style” D&D, don’t panic! We will try to ensure that articles are of use to everyone, from rank amateur to top-class pro.” Thus, the issue comes at a point when there is a definite shift in the hobby from Dungeons & Dragons and Basic Dungeons & Dragons to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, a split that would mark the first of the edition wars that followed over the years. This split then will not be as sharp since mechanically the similarities between the two really are very strong.

The issue’s content opens with ‘View Point: Specialised Clerics Are More Interesting’ [sic] by John Norris. His viewpoint is that the Cleric Class as presented is unsatisfying and vague, calling Gygax’s design simplistic and the only thing that distinguishes one Cleric from another is the plain and boring Alignment system. He suggests that real clerics have “…[A]ll sorts of interesting foibles, some of which stem from the particular tenets of their various faiths and others which seem to be a kind of professional “occupational hazard” of clergy in the society to which they belong.” The article highlights one of the longstanding and oft-addressed complaints about the roleplaying game, in that Clerics are depicted as a holy warrior a la the Crusades, when in the fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons, Christianity was not the faith of choice and there were plenty of other options. The solution is typically to design pantheons with gods that grant different spells and demand different tenets and the article more or less suggests that with a detailed example of a ‘Subclass’. This is ‘The Way of Anubis’, which believes that it is the proper doom of all living things to die and that it is wrong to interfere with the dead, especially via resurrection. There is some divide in the faith too, between those that believe that the process should not be interfered with and those that believe its process should be hurried. In game terms, Clerics of the Way of Anubis better turn and dispel the undead and they cast Lay Undead better and more effectively than the standard Animate Dead spell. Counter to this, Clerics of the Way of Anubis do not use healing magic and are opposed to its use, even seeking to reverse the effects of such magic if used! Clerics of the Way of Anubis also seek to kill anyone who has been resurrected.

‘The Way of Anubis’ is a fascinating creation. One that follows through on the author’s initial complaint about the Cleric Class, but to an extreme. ‘The Way of Anubis’ is a Cleric Subclass is unplayable as a Player Character type since it is antithetical to what a standard Cleric is supposed to do in play and that is heal. One way which the author suggests getting around this is to keep the ‘The Way of Anubis’ Cleric’s faith hidden until the full meaning of his tenets are realised in play. This is odd in itself since a reason would have to be given why this was kept hidden and keeping it hidden feels like a dirty trick to play upon the players by the Dungeon Master. In a way, the article shows the reader how not to do it when it could have been exploring more options.

‘Monster Summoning’ gives eight new monsters. They include the Wood Golem for the Druid to create; the Thin Giant, essentially a giant with invisibility due to permanent Duo-dimension spell having been cast on them; the Bactos, a living cactus that uses its offshoots to pin victims against it and drain all moisture from their bodies, making resurrection impossible; and the Death Grub, an flying insect related to the Rot Grub, which does not attack, but instead infests dead bodies and again, resurrection impossible. The daftest monster is the Time Rat, a rat from the future with time travel powers that likes to come to the past and explore dungeons and is curious about adventuring parties. If attacked, it can cast Time Stop, after which it will steal any item its can, especially magical items, and then phase out back to the future. It is essentially a means to deprive Player Characters of their hard won magical items and it could have been a whole lot more interesting. Lastly, the Thin Giant is simply boring.

‘Monster Reaction Roll Tables’ provides a more detailed means of handing interactions between the adventurers and the dungeon denizens if the former are looking to do more than fight, whilst Andreas J. Sarker’s ‘More Gem Tables’ provides a means for the Dungeon Master to detail the gems that might be found as treasure. The included ‘Computer Program’ is a simple BASIC computer program, running to just fifteen lines of code and designed to generate attribute values for Dungeons & Dragons characters. This dates to a time when home computers could easily be programmed at home to run programs typed in.

‘The Dragon Race’ presents the Dragon as a playable Race. As a playable Race, the Dragon has high minimum attributes, can only be a Magic-User or a Fighter—and cannot cast magic if the latter, and has a breath weapon that inflicts damage equal to its Hit Points and can be used a limited number of times a day. They have a natural claw and bite attack, but the bite attack gets better for the Fighter Dragon. All Dragons can attack creatures and enemies that require magical weapons or attacks to hit, but need to be higher Level to attack creatures and enemies with higher magical protection. However, there are two downsides to the Dragon as a playable Race. One is that all Dragons are suspicious of everyone and everything and they are only accepted in society because they are feared, and mechanically, they suffer a high penalty to Experience Point gain. This is -20% for the Fighter Dragon and a massive -40% for the Magic-User Dragon! Honestly, this is not a bad version of the Dragon as a playable Race as the penalties do offset any advantages that the Dragon has and a player of a Dragon will see the characters of his fellow players racing ahead in terms of power and ability.

‘New Spells’ are taken from the ‘Barad-Dur Spellbook’. The eight spells include Mirage for the Illusionist, which makes something appear very attractive, like a fine meal or a pile of gold, and can be used as a distraction for all but the most intelligent and similarly, for the Illusionist, Premonition, with which the caster runs his finger across his neck as if to cut and then points at the victim of the spell, who gets a bad feeling that his about to die, and if he fails a Saving Throw, runs away! Effectively, a Fear spell then. The Clerical spell Cure Paralysis is good for after encounters with Ghouls and Ghasts and the like; Death Bomb turns a Magic-User into a living bomb if he is killed, potentially destroying every item on his body, if not his actual body, so good for the Dungeon Master to use on a villainous wizard; and Probability Travel gives the spell’s recipient the ability to see a few seconds into the future, see what he is going to do, and give him the opportunity to improve on it. In game terms, Probability Travel lets a player roll twice for his character’s next action and take the best result. So, Advantage in 1979, then?

Lastly, ‘Thoughts on NPC’s’ (sic), suggests ways of getting away from anonymous NPCs who are just there to provide services such as Cure Disease and Resurrection. Ultimately, the point of half the article is not about NPCs as such, as more finding ways of making the Player Characters work to access spells such as Cure Disease and Resurrection, whether that is through simple, but big payments or more interestingly, require a quest to get the right ingredients or components, or fulfil a task required by the caster. The other half is a call to make normal NPCs more interesting, especially those that adventure with the Player Characters, such as having an Assassin pose as a Paladin in a party of Good-aligned Player Characters. Arguably, this is a call to make NPCs more of a threat—in this case, an internal threat—than necessarily interesting.

The highlight of any issue of The Beholder is its scenario. ‘Legend of Leshy’ is what it calls a ‘stage-by-stage’ mini-scenario. What this means is that its plot and story will be revealed in discrete sections or scenes. Roughly designed for a group of five Player Characters of First and Second Level, one of whom should be a Druid, the scenario is based on Slavonic mythology and calls upon them to capture the ‘Leshachikha Bond’. The Leshachikha is the mortal wife of Leshy and bearer of the Leshonki, the children of Leshy. By capturing the ‘Leshachikha Bond’, it will free her from her subservience to Leshy. He is the spirit of the forest and tends to be good natured, though he does lead travellers astray. The scenario begins at the Ivanovich family farm where the Player Characters are staying, put up in a barn overnight. This barn is locked and the Player Characters are warned about the Keeper of the Barn and told not to enter the yard after 11 pm as there will be strange spirits about.

The farm and its inhabitants are nicely detailed and will be a challenge to get past as the Player Characters will need to break out of the barn and into the house in order to really get the scenario going. This is to begin the quest that spirit of the barn sets, which includes actually setting fire to the barn(!), and puts them on the path to capturing the ‘Leshachikha Bond’. Much of the scenario is an exploration of the surrounding wilderness, almost jump-cutting from one scene to the next, one encounter with a mystical inhabitant of the forest to the next, as the Player Characters go in search of the ‘Leshachikha Bond’. In places, the scenario can be quite tough physically, such as attempting to get across a battered rope bridge, but bar the occasional random encounter, is low in terms of combat. Most of the encounters will give clues as to where to search next and ultimately, if the Player Characters complete the quest, they will be well rewarded.

In 1979, ‘Legend of Leshy’ would have been a fine scenario. It is rough around the edges and the background to the scenario, based on Slavonic folklore, would not have been familiar to many players or Dungeon Masters, so adding it to a campaign would have been a challenge. (Today, there is at least a Wikipedia page.) More background would have helped and it would have been good if the possibility of the Player Characters returning to the Ivanovich family farm after the quest ends had been addressed. The main problem is the lack of detail on the otherwise large, two-page spread map of the region. The Dungeon Master really needs to work through the scenario hard in order to extract clues as to where various locations are on the map. That aside, ‘Legend of Leshy’ is a fine fantasy folkloric adventure, possessing an at time eerie and unsettling atmosphere that would have been enhanced by the lack of familiarity with the folklore.

Rounding out The Beholder Issue No. 5 is the ‘Contacts & Info’ section. Not only does this gives details of the then forthcoming Games Day which would take place on October 20th later that year, but lists a couple of players looking for players. This was how it was done back in the dawn of the hobby and people were then quite happy to hand out their address as contact details! One of the two is Simon Washbourne, later designer of roleplaying games such as Lashings of Ginger Beer.

Physically, The Beholder Issue No. 5 is slightly untidy in places, but readable. The layout is tight and that does make it difficult to read in places. The illustrations are reasonable, but the cartography simply lacks the detail its scenario requires. Of course, every issue of the fanzine was published when personal publishing was still analogue and the possibilities of the personal computer and personal desktop publishing were yet to come. In the case of The Beholder that would never be taken advantage of.

The Beholder has a high reputation for content that is of good quality and playable. The Beholder Issue No. 5 does not yet match that reputation, but as with previous issues, the signs are there and there is content aplenty that the Dungeon Master could have used in her game at the time and in some cases, still use to today. The standout piece is the scenario, ‘Legend of Leshy’, which is a rough, but interesting attempt to write a folklore-based scenario that just about works. It is certainly the best scenario in the fanzine to date. Elsewhere, the other articles are not quite as interesting or as thoughtful as in previous issues, though still very much concerned with what would have been traditional topics for Dungeons & Dragons at the time. The Beholder Issue No. 5 would have been a solid issue of the fanzine in 1979 and even today in 2025 is an enjoyable read.