[Fanzine Focus XLIV] Pavic Tales Issue 1

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.

Subtitled ‘The RuneQuest Fanzine’, Pavic Tales was one of the first fanzines devoted solely to RuneQuest and Greg Stafford’s world of Glorantha. It ran for nine issues between 1987 and 1989 and bridged the gap between Chaosium, Inc.’s own RuneQuest II and RuneQuest III from Avalon Hill. Unfortunately, Pavic Tales Issue 1 and its other issues are not readily available, a limited release meaning that they are highly collectible. It would be interesting to see the contents updated and made available for every fan, not just the collectors. A full history and index of Pavic Tales can be found here.

With Pavic Tales Issue 1, the editors promised a “…[S]uperb, well written and edited Runequest fanzine.” and stated that, “It is intended to give an endless source of ideas for you and your group to implement in your game.” Their lament was the lack of RuneQuest material available at the time (“[E]specially for Glorantha and Heroquesting”) and that RuneQuest was overlooked in roleplaying magazines. This is not an entirely unfounded point of view given both the lack of content being published by Avalon Hill at the time and its underwhelming quality. Beyond the ‘Introduction to Glorantha’ in the RuneQuest III boxed set, the Gods of Glorantha boxed set, and the ‘new’ version of Griffin Mountain that was Griffin Island, there was little content being published and not only that, by 1987, there were very few general gaming magazines on the market—Imagine from TSR Hobbies (UK) Ltd had been cancelled two years earlier and White Dwarf was a year away from making the shift away from the roleplaying hobby. It is a view that the editors will return to later in the pages of Pavic Tales Issue 1, but in the opening remarks they make clear that their aim is to fill what they see as a gap in the market.

With no contents page, the inaugural fanzine leaps straight into the heat of combat with Jim Mozely’s ‘FIRE!’. This suggests ways to counter the players tendency to use Multimissile 4 in combination with an arbalest or Fire Arrow Thrown Rock to blast their opponents to death. These include highlighting the dangers of firing into melee combat, making arbalests unavailable unless found as treasure since Dwarves are not simply going to give them away, using shields properly to cover hit locations, and using spells on missile weapons before they are fired. Thus, Glue to fix an arrow firmly in place, Ignite to burn the crossbow, and Conceal to make it disappear—and of course, let the NPCs do this, not just the Player Characters. Most of the options are obvious, but useful, whilst the spell suggestions are amusingly inventive.

The fire theme continues with Mark Corbett’s ‘The Fire Spirit’ which tells the rise and fall of Yelm’s grandson, hatched from the womb of a volcano, who looking for mischief threw himself into the fight alongside Stormball in the fight against Chaos and quite literally at Wakboth! Disappointingly, it foreshadows ‘The Cult of the Fire Spirit’ in Pavic Tales Issue 2, and so whilst an engaging piece of backstory, the reader has to wait for the follow up!

In ‘Nysalor’s Niggles’, ‘H. Vorder.’ discusses news, rules, and more about RuneQuest III. Again he laments the lack of support from Avalon Hill and Glorantha in particular, noting that this has left Game Masters to adapt their knowledge of the setting to the new edition of the rules or clinging to old rules and unfortunately an elitist outlook.* He summarises the issues with the rules—the Previous Experience tables not being sufficiently Gloranthan, the replacement of Defence value with the Dodge skill, and the numerous chances to magic and spellcasting. The author wonders whether it is worth reconciling the issues between the two editions, given that he feels that Glorantha is dead as a setting because of the lack of support from its current publisher which is making Glorantha inaccessible and thus less popular. He concludes by saying, “With no new material likely to appear for sometime this fanzine may be the only source of of information to develope [sic] comprehensive Gloranthian campaign background, Through this column the ideas presented should become accessible to RQ’ers both old and new.”

* Does anything ever change?

‘Praxian Population Statistics’ follow which breaks down the populations of the five great tribes—Bison, Impala, High Llama, Sable, and Morokanth—and the lesser clans to give an overall population of roughly 58,000. With an area of forty thousand kilometres, this gives a population of one-and-a-half per kilometre, which it equates to rough that of central Africa. These figures would have been estimated in 1987 and of course, have been updated since with more official figures.

‘A Scroll Written in Sartarite by Hershal Sometimes Known The Shadow, a Windlord of Orlanth’ by Butch Wheeler relates an expedition and heroquest out of Pavis across Prax to a tower in the Eritha Hills protected by Zorak Zoran-worshipping Trolls and get into caverns below which border the realm of the Troll god of war and death. From there he relates how he manages to cross the River Lief without falling asleep to an island where an ancient, winged hero is imprisoned all in search of the broken parts of the staff of Issaries. It is rip-roaring stuff that reads if it was actually played out in game and lays the groundwork for a campaign that begins in the issue and will continue in subsequent issues as the Player Character searches for the five separate parts.

The highlight of Pavic Tales Issue 1 is ‘Tower of the Necromancer’, a scenario located at the eponymous site in the hills between The Paps and The Head Aches in Prax. This is a Heroquest for a strong party of Rune level Player Characters from a variety of cults. It protects the prison of the aforementioned ancient, winged hero who in times was past was tricked into fight for Zorak Zoran and if freed, the Troll god fears he will take his revenge. The tower is protected by a cadre of veteran, highly trained and fanatical Zorak Zorani who view all outsiders—including non-Zorak Zorani-worshipping Trolls—as food and who are prepared to die to protect the tower. The aim is to provide an implacable foe and nearly unbeatable forces should the Player Characters decide on a straight assault, rather than using stealth, imagination, and wits.

The tower has been slighted such that only the ground level building remain and even they are ruined, whilst below that are the quarters and defences of the Trolls along with the remnants of the former occupant’s activities—libraries, secret storerooms with too much demonic magic, demonology work room, and more. There is no denying its dungeon-like design. Indeed, it feels not unlike Balastor’s Barracks from RuneQuest Scenario Pack 1: Balastor’s Barracks or something that Judges Guild might have published. This does not necessarily mean that it is bad, but rather that the design is old fashioned. However, the third level is where the adventure gets interesting as the Player Characters reach the cavern abutting Zorak Zoran’s realm. As ‘A Scroll Written in Sartarite by Hershal Sometimes Known The Shadow, a Windlord of Orlanth’ suggests, getting further is going to be a challenge for the Player Characters, but Fly or Teleport spells will be very useful.

If the ancient, winged hero is freed, there is the possibility that he will accept becoming the subject of a hero subcult for Orlanth and the Player Chaarcters be amongst his first worshippers, and also the possibility that the Player Characters will find one of the parts of Issaries’ staff. Well actually, they should, as it will kick off the rest of the campaign and it is the only major magical item to be found on the island. The Game Master will need to create stats for many of the monsters found in the scenario, but it does include those for the ancient, winged hero and for Densrata narl Sazdorf, 823-year old Mistress Troll and commander of the Troll forces at Necromancer’s Tower.

‘Tower of the Necroamncer’ is old-fashioned, but it works and it does not feel out of place. If there is an issue with the scenario it is that the Player Characters will need some motivations to go searching for it. The Game Master will need to create some using the description of the tower and dungeon and the preceding scroll relating a previous attempt to get into it as inspiration.

Butch Wheeler’s ‘Dear Spugh’ has one ‘Spugh Bloodenguts’—a seven-and-a-half Minotaur Stormbull priest and Zorak Zoran associate death priest—do a questions & answers session. This is a lifestyle, agony aunt (agony Minotaur Stormbull priest?) questions & answers column, not rules or setting questions & answers column. So, it is as silly as you would expect and strays about as close as it can to tasteless as it can without being unnecessarily unpleasant.

‘The Sisterhood of Jezzerissa’ by Mark Corbett is a Death cult that protects its members—all women—and crushes its enemies. It is not a cult in the classic RuneQuest sense, more of a sororal organisation prepared to take revenge upon those that wrong its members. This would be in addition any other religious cult that the members belong too. There are plenty of ways in which this could be used.

Pavic Tales Issue 1 comes to a close with some more silliness such as ‘Why Don’t Women Like RuneQuest?’ and an anti-AD&D advert, and some introductions to the fanzine from its editors. Butch Wheeler’s gives the origins of the fanzine, whilst Jim Mozley’s is more controversial, disagreeing with Greg Stafford that any Player Character who achieves Rune Lord or Rune Priest status should be retired and suggesting ways in which he could continue to go on adventures, or in particular, heroquests. The point is also to give something for the readers to write in about and discuss in the proposed letters page for the next issue.

Physically, Pavic Tales Issue 1 is a rough, scruffy affair in keeping with its amateur status. It is unillustrated, but the cartography is serviceable and the three-panel cartoons, including ‘Fumblethrow’ are not bad and mildly amusing to boot.

It would be easy to dismiss Pavic Tales Issue 1 as a first issue, given how rough it is in places and how the editors bemoan the state of the hobby in 1987. That would be unfair though, since it is a first issue and that it was done on typewriter (not everyone had access to the early Desk Top Publishing packages which were then becoming available, let alone a computer), and gamers are still bemoaning the state of the hobby four decades on… Pavic Tales Issue 1 is interesting to read for its nostalgia value and for the view that its editors did have of their hobby—and the fact that they did something about it. There is certainly no doubting their ambition and their love for Glorantha that shows in Pavic Tales Issue 1. The fiction which gives the backgrounds to ‘The Cult of the Fire Spirit’ and the campaign are still entertaining and the scenario is playable today, even though it would require a lot of tweaks and motivations to work with any ease. For those fortunate enough to have had access to Pavic Tales Issue 1 would have found its contents useful support for their RuneQuest campaign and an enjoyable read. Today, Pavic Tales Issue 1 is still an enjoyable read.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] The Travellers’ Digest Number 10

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 her 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. Although not the case now, the popularity of Traveller would spawn several fanzines, of which The Travellers’ Digest, published by Digest Group Publications, was the most well known and would eventually transform from a fanzine into a magazine.

The publication of The Travellers’ Digest #1 in December, 1985 marked the entry of Digest Group Publications into the hobby and from this small, but ambitious beginnings would stem a complete campaign and numerous highly-regarded supplements for Game Designers Workshop’s Traveller and MegaTraveller, as well as a magazine that all together would run for twenty-one issues between 1985 and 1990. The conceit was that The Travellers’ Digest was a magazine within the setting of the Third Imperium, its offices based on Deneb in the Deneb Sector, and that it awarded the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award. This award would be won by one of the Player Characters and thus the stage is set for ‘The Grand Tour’, the long-running campaign in the pages of The Travellers’ Digest. In classic fashion, as with Europe of the eighteenth century, this would take the Player Characters on a tour of the major capitals of known space. These include Vland, Capitol, Terra, the Aslan Hierate, and even across the Great Rift. The meat of this first issue, as well as subsequent issues, would be dedicated to an adventure, each a stop-off on the ‘The Grand Tour’, along with support for it. The date for the first issue of The Travellers’ Digest and thus when the campaign begins is 152-1101, the 152nd day of the 1101st year of the Imperium.

To best run ‘The Grand Tour’, the Referee will need access to The Atlas of the Imperium, Supplement 8: Library Data (A-M), Supplement 11: Library Data (N-Z), Supplement 7: Traders and Gunboats (or alternatively, Supplement 5: Azhanti High Lightning), as well as the core rules. In addition, other supplements would be required depending on the adventure, in the case of this issue, The Travellers’ Digest Number 9, that would only be Book 8, Robots. For ‘Reference Point’, the tenth part of ‘The Grand Tour’, the Referee will also want access to The Travellers’ Digest Number 8 and The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 for the subsector maps that appear in those issues. CHALLENGE Magazine No. 27 will also be useful. Of course, that was in 1987, and much, if not all, of the rules or background necessary have been updated since. The campaign is also specifically written for use with four pre-generated Player Characters. They consist of Akidda Laagiir, the journalist who won the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award; Dur Telemon, a scout and his nephew; Doctor Theodor Krenstein, a gifted-scientist and roboticist; and Doctor Krenstein’s valet, ‘Aybee’, or rather, ‘AB-101’. The fact is, AB-101 is a pseudo-biological robot, both protégé and prototype. Consequently, the mix of Player Characters are surprisingly non-traditional and not all of them are easily created using the means offered in Traveller or MegaTraveller. This is addressed within various issues of the fanzine.

The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 was published in 1987. One major change announced in the editorial is the magazine will no longer print the Universal Task Profile. In past issues, this has explained the mechanical format used in The Travellers’ Digest, but with the publication of and its application in MegaTraveller, it seems redundant. This gives the magazine two extra pages to play with! In previous issue, The Travellers’ Digest Number 9, and ninth part of ‘The Grand Tour’ brought the Travellers to Capital, the heart of the Third Imperium, and the Emperor’s court at ‘Before the Iridium Throne’. When ‘Reference Point’, the tenth part by Gary L. Thomas, opens, the Travellers found themselves with a problem. To get to Capital, the four Travellers were granted Imperial space-required travel vouchers. However, the Emperor’s largesse does not run in the opposite direction. Thus, they find themselves on Capital, the core of the Third Imperium, with nowhere to go and now way of paying for it! Fortunately, three of the four have transferable skills aboard ship and the other is a member of the Traveller’s Aid Society and so can begin make their way. They decide to see more of the Third Imperium and head Rimward towards Sol in the Solomani Sphere.

This is fun set-up, shifting the adventurers of the Travellers into something that is more peripatetic and more like a classic Traveller campaign. In ‘Reference Point’, the Travellers find themselves husbanding a difficult species from one zoo to another, pulling a few strings based on their various reputations, and so on, until they receive a message from Eneri Balan, who had been the protocol assigned to them on Capital. He has a task for them that he can pass on from the Moot, the primary deliberative assembly of the Third Imperium, composed of all nobles holding the rank of Baron or higher. The Baron of Wolton holds his patent on Kigaru in the Ilelish subsector, but it was destroyed along with other records in a fire. Fortunately, copies of all such records are held in the computers on the Scout Base underground on the world of Reference. Here, the records of the Third Imperium go all the way back to the First Imperial Grand Survey and the Second Imperial Grand Survey. Unfortunately, when copies of the records about Kigaru were returned, there was no mention of his barony and it was in fact, public property. This effectively strips him of his title, so he sought help from the Moot. The Travellers are to travel to Reference and investigate this discrepancy, as two of their number are computer specialists. Besides investigating this problem, the Travellers’ arrival on Reference will trigger another couple of plots, which though small, are quite interesting. The Referee will develop some of the NPCs and scenes in the mini-adventures that the Travellers will encounter and so bring them to life, ‘Reference Point’ serves up a thoroughly enjoyable slice of life with small stories that push the Travellers onwards on ‘The Grand Tour’.

‘Reference Point’ is followed by a second adventure, ‘Plague of Perruques’. This is by Gary L. Thomas and Marc W. Miller and is set in the Regina Subsector following the end of the Fifth Frontier War. The party, led by Baron Ganidiirsi hault-Reitan, are touring his holdings, surveying them for damage, when he has arranged a hunting trip for the Rebacked Slonth on Uakye in Regina Subsector. The scenario is divided into two parts. In the first half, the Player Characters go hunting, but in the second, they return to the capital to discover that a strange and unfortunately deadly plague has broken out. Its symptoms include grey fibres appearing at the roots of suffers’ hair and covering the skull in a few days, followed by a film growing over the eyes, leading to blindness and fever. It kills half of its sufferers. This is an investigative scenario in which the Player Characters need to travel to various locations, sifting rumour from fact. It is challenging and needs some set-up by the Referee to ensure that the players have some pointers to get started, but this is a solid scenario, and like ‘Reference Point’ before it, has its world data presented in same format as for The Grand Survey. Task details are provided for the hunting half of the scenario, and whilst the scenario was originally written as a tournament scenario, it does not come with any pre-generated Player Characters.

The ‘Library Data of the Core Sector’ is surprisingly extensive, paying particular attention to Cadlion and Chant Subsectors which are also detailed, compete with maps. There is a lot of detail here, and some of the entries are marked with Referee suggestions for their use. The ‘Playing the Characters’ series comes to close with an examination of Akidda Laagiir, the journalist whose Travellers’ Digest Touring Award at the start of ‘The Grand Tour’ sets the campaign off. This is useful, more so if the Referee is starting the campaign from the start. The ‘Traveller Q & A’ provides answers to the readers’ questions. These include a very detailed explanation of what MegaTraveller and Traveller: 2300 are and what the differences are between (and the original Traveller); why nobles are actually banned from taking anagathic treatments (useful in conjunction with the later article in the magazine); the stats for the Princes Lucan and Varian, and Margaret, Grand Duchess of Delphi; and much more. Some of the information here is quite technical, entirely in keeping with Traveller as a roleplaying game.

This is followed by a series of departments, old and new. For the ‘Tech Briefs’ department, any player of Akidda Laagiir will be pleased to see that the device detailed is ‘Holorecorders’. This is a recording and playback device as well as an editing suite using holocrystals. It is a highly detailed description and also suggests other applications too, such as holographic recording robots for hazardous environments, medical imaging, police crime scene recording, and more. The next department is ‘The Gaming Digest—Referee’s Tips—Part 1’ for which Gary L. Thomas explores ‘More Effective Roleplaying’. He observes that the quality of roleplaying varies wildly, especially in Traveller, but points out that actually roleplaying is a skill and can be made better with practice. This is a surprisingly deep examination of roleplaying, exploring the differences between character and player, the limitations of player knowledge in what they know and do not know, tailoring content to players’ interests, and more. The article is aimed at both the player and the Referee and is actually informative and useful, possibly more so when the issue of the magazine was published.

‘Anagathics, the Drug of the Ages’ by Joe D. Fugate Sr. examines the development of the anti-ageing drugs and how they are obtained, what their possible side effects are, and more. Anti-ageing treatment becomes available at Tech Level 12 and rules are provided for this, and then again at subsequent Tech Levels up to 15. There are fewer side-effects as the science advances, but the article also examines what happens if a Player Character takes a break between treatments or runs out and suffers withdrawal symptoms. However, the article is more technical than social, so the social consequences are not explored, which is a pity. Otherwise, this comprehensive guide and useful should players have their character seek out anagathics. ‘Statistics From the Second Imperial Grand Survey’ brings the support for Traveller in the issue to a close. It consists mostly of numbers so is not that interesting.

The last few pages of The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 are devoted to Traveller: 2300. First, William Connors describes ‘Pentapod Constructs for 2300’, a number of biological devices available on the open market from the alien species. They include a ‘Breather’, a lifeform that when worn enables the user to breathe freely underwater (the lifeform does look like a Facehugger though…); the ‘Hibernation Inducer’, a black blob that when placed on the back of an injured person induces unconsciousness and a greatly lowered metabolism to enable the person to be transported to medical safety; and ‘Atmospheric Filter Symbiots’, tiny creatures that can be injected into the lungs to filter out trace elements that would normally harm the host. The ‘Briefcase Library for 2300’ by Robert Parker describes a briefcase-sized device that uses optical storage drives to store vast amounts of information suitable for personal use and transportation to the frontier. Of course, it looks vastly outdated by modern standards, being the equivalent of the modern laptop. Nancy Parker gives a very detailed breakdown of the ‘Medical Kit for 2300’, detailing what medical kit contains and must be carried by vehicles with a passenger capacity of thirty or more and also by emergency workers. Lastly, Robert Parker also describes ‘The Life Foundation “Squid” for 2300’, a relatively cheap and easily customisable submersible for frontier use. Unfortunately, there are no technical details or deck plans, but otherwise, this is a nice description.

Physically, The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 continues the physical improvement begun in the previous issue. The artwork is improved too and overall, this is a much more professional looking issue.

After the tumultuous events explored in The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 with the assassination of Emperor Strephon, The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 settles down and concerns itself with providing solidly gameable support for both MegaTraveller and Traveller: 2300. The scenarios in the issue are good, ‘Reference Point’, the tenth part of ‘The Grand Tour’ is really quite enjoyable. The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 is simply a good issue with good support for both roleplaying games from Game Designers’ Workshop.

[Fanzine Focus XLII] The Travellers’ Digest Number 9

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 her 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. Although not the case now, the popularity of Traveller would spawn several fanzines, of which The Travellers’ Digest, published by Digest Group Publications, was the most well known and would eventually transform from a fanzine into a magazine.

The publication of The Travellers’ Digest #1 in December, 1985 marked the entry of Digest Group Publications into the hobby and from this small, but ambitious beginnings would stem a complete campaign and numerous highly-regarded supplements for Game Designers Workshop’s Traveller and MegaTraveller, as well as a magazine that all together would run for twenty-one issues between 1985 and 1990. The conceit was that The Travellers’ Digest was a magazine within the setting of the Third Imperium, its offices based on Deneb in the Deneb Sector, and that it awarded the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award. This award would be won by one of the Player Characters and thus the stage is set for ‘The Grand Tour’, the long-running campaign in the pages of The Travellers’ Digest. In classic fashion, as with Europe of the eighteenth century, this would take the Player Characters on a tour of the major capitals of known space. These include Vland, Capitol, Terra, the Aslan Hierate, and even across the Great Rift. The meat of this first issue, as well as subsequent issues, would be dedicated to an adventure, each a stop-off on the ‘The Grand Tour’, along with support for it. The date for the first issue of The Travellers’ Digest and thus when the campaign begins is 152-1101, the 152nd day of the 1101st year of the Imperium.

To best run ‘The Grand Tour’, the Referee will need access to The Atlas of the Imperium, Supplement 8: Library Data (A-M), Supplement 11: Library Data (N-Z), Supplement 7: Traders and Gunboats (or alternatively, Supplement 5: Azhanti High Lightning), as well as the core rules. In addition, other supplements would be required depending on the adventure, in the case of this issue, The Travellers’ Digest Number 9, that would only be Book 8, Robots. Of course, that was in 1987, and much, if not all, of the rules or background necessary have been updated since. The campaign is also specifically written for use with four pre-generated Player Characters. They consist of Akidda Laagiir, the journalist who won the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award; Dur Telemon, a scout and his nephew; Doctor Theodor Krenstein, a gifted-scientist and roboticist; and Doctor Krenstein’s valet, ‘Aybee’, or rather, ‘AB-101’. The fact is, AB-101 is a pseudo-biological robot, both protégé and prototype. Consequently, the mix of Player Characters are surprisingly non-traditional and not all of them are easily created using the means offered in Traveller or MegaTraveller. This is addressed within various issues of the fanzine.

The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 was published in 1987 and is a very special issue, published at a momentous point in the history of Traveller and a momentous point in the history of the setting of Traveller. It is special because it marked the move to a larger format, both in terms of size and page. It is special because it was the first to have a full colour cover, for this issue depicting a member of the Emperor’s Guard, standing under the Imperial Palace in sight of the Moot Spire, the seat of power for the Third Imperium’s nobility. It was the first to cover content for Game Designers’ Workshop’s other Science Fiction roleplaying game, Traveller: 2300, hence the issue also carrying the tagline, “The quarterly adventure magazine devoted to GDW’s science fiction role playing game”. It was special because it brought the fanzine’s ongoing campaign, ‘The Grand Tour’, to Core, the capital of the Third Imperium. Which was highly pertinent because The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 was published for the tenth anniversary of Traveller, an event marked by that momentous point in the history of Traveller and a momentous point in the history of the setting of Traveller. The former was the publication of MegaTraveller, effectively the second edition of the roleplaying game which the team at Digest Publications had been developing. The latter was the assassination of Emperor Strephon and its calamitous consequences.

However, the momentous occurrences at the heart of The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 would have consequences upon the fanzine—arguably now a magazine—itself. The publication date for the issue is 144-1116, the 144th day of the 1116th year of the Imperium, but the events of the issue take place in 1104. This is because the journalist, Akidda Laagiir, is actually publishing the stories anew over a decade after they happened, long after his Grand Tour is over and with the benefit of hindsight. That year, 1116, is also the year when Emperor Strephon is assassinated. In fact, all of the key figures involved in that assassination appear in the issue’s feature adventure, ‘Before the Iridium Throne’. Which will be odd for any Traveller fan playing through the scenario, knowing what will happen in twelve years’ time and knowing that their characters can do nothing about it.

Since The Travellers’ Digest is now “The quarterly adventure magazine devoted to GDW’s science fiction role playing game”, the other major consequence is that there will be a dichotomy in its support for Traveller. This is that the magazine will continue to tell the story of ‘The Grand Tour’, taking place from 1101 onwards, whilst also providing content that supports the official timeline from 1116 and the assassination of Emperor Strephon. Which also means a dichotomy between the support for Traveller and MegaTraveller—although the magazine’s development and continued use of the ‘UTP’ or ‘Universal Task Profile’ offsets that. Of course, this is in addition to the dichotomy between the content for Traveller and Traveller: 2300!

After introducing the quartet of Player Characters for the ‘Grand Tour’, ‘Before the Iridium Throne’ sets up them with a deep concern as detailed in a lengthy bit of fiction, ‘Knight Falls on Capital’. This is the fact that ‘Aybee’, or rather, ‘AB-101’ is a robot and therefore not human, and technically should not have been knighted and inducted into the Order of the Emperor’s Guard. Akidda Laagiir, Dur Telemon, and Doctor Theodor Krenstein are guilty of deception at the very least. ‘Knight Falls on Capital’ is meant to be read out by the Referee, which is a lot of exposition to expose. The scenario is short, representing a chance for the Player Characters to explore Capital and the parts of the Imperial Palace complex as well as actually attend the audience with the Emperor himself. However, there really is not a lot for the Player Characters to do and not a lot of actual adventure. So, it can be completed in a single session. If the Referee wants more, the scenario suggests that Emperor Strephon actually asks the Player Characters to arrange a sixteenth birthday part for his daughter, Princess Cencia Iphegenia. Which is an interesting social challenge, but one that the Referee will have to develop herself—and there is not a lot of advice to that end.

The dichotomy in The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 comes to the fore with the second scenario in the issue. This is ‘Lion At Bay – A MegaTraveller Scenario’ by Gary L. Thomas. Being written for use with MegaTraveller, it is set in 1116. However, it is set on Capital and it is set against the backdrop of the assassination of Emperor Strephon. The Player Characters are the crew of the trade vessel, Eiriakh, an Aslan Khtukhao class transport which has ferried an Aslan trade mission from the Yerlyaruiwo clan to Capital. The trade mission is interrupted by the events in Imperial Palace, for which initially, the Aslan are blamed. As the events are reported on the news channels—again leading to a lot of exposition—the Aslan crew, currently tourists, quickly become subject to anti-Aslan sentiment and realise that they have to get off-world. Complicating this  is the need to get one of their colleagues out of gaol. Beyond that, although challenging, there is not a great deal for the Player Characters to do, expect be aghast at the news coming out of the Imperial Palace. Given this limitation, the scenario is actually a better read for its historical detail than it is for giving the Player Characters much to do.

To further support the setting of Capital and the Imperial Palace, The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 presents four more articles. ‘Crack Troops: The Imperial Guard’ by Terry McInnes details the history, guard life, dispositions, and organisation of all eleven regiments that protect the emperor and his family as well as serving elsewhere. It suggests the possibility that a Player Character might have served in the Imperial Guard. ‘The Imperial Palace’ by Rob Caswell and William W. Connors describes the Grand Palace of the Third Imperium in the city of Cleon on Capital, including the previous palaces, facilities, and history. This is accompanied by the description of the spire that is ‘The Moot’ by Gary L. Thomas, as well as a good map of ‘The Imperial Palace Grounds on Capital’. Pertinent now to the Player Characters of ‘The Grand Tour’ is Bob Swarm’s ‘Noblesse Oblige: The Imperial Nobility’, which examines the role and place of the noble class in the Third Imperium. It draws a clear distinction between the orders of knighthood, honour nobles (knights, baronets, barons, and maquis), rank nobility, and high nobility, and the broad responsibilities of each. It gives guidelines too on creating nobles as Player Characters and NPCs, and a more granular means of determining status within the nobility. This is very well done article that gives a guide to one of the archetypal NPCs (and potentially Player Characters) in Traveller. 

There was element of humour in ‘Knight Falls on Capital’, the ‘Grand Tour’ scenario in the issue in its depiction of Emperor Strephon. This humanised him, as does the subsequent ‘An Interview with the Emperor’, conducted and written in game by the journalist, Akidda Laagiir. Again, it also touches upon what is regarded—in game and out—as ‘Strephon’s worst decision’, the appointment of Dulinor Ilethian as Archduke of Ilelish. He defends the action, of course, but as we know, the Emperor’s critics were proven to be right. Nevertheless, an interesting read that gives his view of the Imperium.

‘The Core Sector: XBoat Routes’ is a simple blocky map, and it is followed by Dale L. Kemper’s ‘Library Data of the Core Sector’. Given its history and prominence in Third Imperium and Charted Space, it should be no surprise that entries do detail a larger number of the great and the good, battles, wars, and the like than is the norm. There is a particular focus on the founding of the insular Interstellar Confederacy (a major opponent to the rise of the Sylean Federation) and the Civil War of the Interstellar Confederacy (both hundreds of years before the foundation of the Third Imperium). It is accompanied by maps of the ‘Bunkeria Subsector’ and Cemplas Subsector’ in Core sector, where the Interstellar Confederacy was established.

‘The Gaming Digest: Let’s Get Physical’ by Gary L. Thomas and Bill Paley examines the definitions, uses, and limitations of the Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance attributes in Traveller. This is a follow up to the earlier examinations in previous issues of the fanzine, providing basic skill rolls, using the UTP—or ‘Universal Task Profile’—for all three. 

The issue is rounded out with two last articles. One is ‘Traveller Q&A’ in which both Joe D. Fugate Sr. and Marc Miller answer questions about Traveller. Such as what does the Imperial flag look like and what is the colour is the flag of Third Imperium? The answer being that it is the symbol and shape of a star—originally Capital’s G3 star of yellow on a black background—that matters, not the colour.  The other questions cover assigning task difficulties in scenarios and differences between the distribution of high-tech, high starport-rated worlds in the Sol subsector versus the Vland subsector. The answer to the latter is interesting again from an in-game points of view and an out of game one too, examining how worlds are distributed across sector and subsector maps. The other is ‘Civilian Vehicles for Traveller: 2300’ by Rob Caswell. This describes the Saab-Sikorsky ‘Condor VX’ VTOL, which is found on Earth and across the colonies, and the Renault ‘Pioner’ HUV, which is an ATV found on many frontier worlds, but especially those of the French Arm. This is the only support for Traveller: 2300 in the issue.

Physically, The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 feels cleaner and tidier than previous issues. Some of the artwork is also much better and overall, this is a much more professional looking issue.

There is another dichotomy to The Travellers’ Digest Number 9. On the one hand, as a gaming fanzine, there is little to actually game with in the issue. The two scenarios are both short and very specific in their content. On the other, background content is excellent, expanding the world of Traveller and the Third Imperium with intriguing details, from a very high level, but also showing how little that the average Player Character or ‘Traveller’ can do to change things. The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 gives a fascinating prelude of things to come, is a fantastic read about the state of the Imperium years before any of those things come to pass, and will be enjoyed by the Traveller fan for its background rather than its playable content. If The Travellers’ Digest has always been an interesting read, with The Travellers’ Digest Number 9, it becomes a genuine historical artefact as much as it is slice of history.

[Fanzine Focus XLI] The Travellers’ Digest #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 her 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. Although not the case now, the popularity of Traveller would spawn several fanzines, of which The Travellers’ Digest, published by Digest Group Publications, was the most well known and would eventually transform from a fanzine into a magazine.

The publication of The Travellers’ Digest #1 in December, 1985 marked the entry of Digest Group Publications into the hobby and from this small, but ambitious beginnings would stem a complete campaign and numerous highly-regarded supplements for Game Designers Workshop’s Traveller and MegaTraveller, as well as a magazine that all together would run for twenty-one issues between 1985 and 1990. The conceit was that The Travellers’ Digest was a magazine within the setting of the Third Imperium, its offices based on Deneb in the Deneb Sector, and that it awarded the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award. This award would be won by one of the Player Characters and thus the stage is set for ‘The Grand Tour’, the long-running campaign in the pages of The Travellers’ Digest. In classic fashion, as with Europe of the eighteenth century, this would take the Player Characters on a tour of the major capitals of known space. These include Vland, Capitol, Terra, the Aslan Hierate, and even across the Great Rift. The meat of this first issue, as well as subsequent issues, would be dedicated to an adventure, each a stop-off on the ‘The Grand Tour’, along with support for it. The date for the first issue of The Travellers’ Digest and thus when the campaign begins is 152-1101, the 152nd day of the 1101st year of the Imperium.

To best run ‘The Grand Tour’, the Referee will need access to The Atlas of the Imperium, Supplement 8: Library Data (A-M), Supplement 11: Library Data (N-Z), Supplement 7: Traders and Gunboats (or alternatively, Supplement 5: Azhanti High Lightning), as well as the core rules. In addition, other supplements would be required depending on the adventure, in the case of this issue, The Travellers’ Digest #8, that would be Alien Module 2, K’kree (though it is actually listed as ‘Alien Module 3, K’kree’ in the introduction) and Alien Module 7, Hivers. In addition, Book 8, Robots will be very useful. Of course, that was in 1987, and much, if not all, of the rules or background necessary have been updated since. The campaign is also specifically written for use with four pre-generated Player Characters. They consist of Akidda Laagiir, the journalist who won the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award; Dur Telemon, a scout and his nephew; Doctor Theodor Krenstein, a gifted-scientist and roboticist; and Doctor Krenstein’s valet, ‘Aybee’, or rather, ‘AB-101’. The fact is, AB-101 is a pseudo-biological robot, both protégé and prototype. Consequently, the mix of Player Characters are surprisingly non-traditional and not all of them are easily created using the means offered in Traveller or MegaTraveller. This is addressed within various issues of the fanzine.

The Travellers’ Digest #8 was published in 1987 and is the last to be published in digest format. From the ninth issue it would be larger and have an increased page count, but these were not the only planned changes announced in The Travellers’ Digest #8. They included coverage of Game Designers Workshop’s other Science Fiction roleplaying of the Traveller: 2300. The editorial also highlighted the strengthening relationship between Marc Miller, the creator of Traveller, and Digest Group Publications, and announced the then forthcoming publication of Grand Census, a companion to Grand Survey.

The eighth part of ‘The Grand Tour’ in The Travellers’ Digest #8 is ‘Feature Adventure 8: Shoot-Out at Shudusham’, written by Gary L Thomas and Joe D. Fugate Sr. The publishing date for the adventure is 060-1113, or the sixtieth day of the year 1113, whilst the starting date for the campaign as a whole is 014-1103, or the fourteenth day of the year 1103. The adventure takes place in the Shudusham system of the Core subsector of the Core Sector. The four travellers are just four weeks’ travel away from Capital where they are due to knighted by Emperor Stephon himself! Shudusham is a water world best known for the location where the Shudusham Concords were signed by the Sylean Federation, a century before the founding of the Third Imperium, which governed the types of weaponry which could be mounted on robots. For the past seven hundred years, it has been the venue for the Shudusham Robotics Conference, a year-long event which takes place every ten years and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors and delegates from across explored space. The Shudusham has even built an underwater arcology specifically designed to host the event. OF course, given the nature of the event, both Doctor Theodor Krenstein and ‘Aybee’ are interested to attend.

Of course, nobody expects anything to happen at the Shudusham Robotics Conference, but when a K’kree delegate is accused by the staff of the Hiver Six Eyes booth, relations between the K’kree and the Hiver sour. The travellers get to witness this, but things get stranger when Akidda Laagiir, the journalist, is inadvertently passed a note about a planned theft of a robot. The players and their travellers may think that the intended target is ‘Aybee’, but it turns out that the target is the ‘Baby Bruiser Robot’ model warbot being demonstrated by the Hiver Six Eyes booth. Are the K’kree taking their revenge by stealing the Hiver’s robot? Well, yes, and no. The K’kree are not the only ones interested in stealing the ‘Baby Bruiser Robot’; there is also a local protest group which has decided to take direct action. It will take a bit of work to get all of the travellers involved –and the scenario makes this clear—and to the climax of the scenario. The scenario is quite short, likely taking no more than a couple of sessions to complete, because ultimately, there is not a huge amount of plot to get the travellers involved in. Indeed, almost half of the plot to the scenario takes off-screen and the travellers are likely to be completely unaware of it. Which is exactly how the Hivers like it…

The scenario is decently supported. This includes details of both Shudusham and the Shudusham Robotics Conference as well as full stats and details for the ‘Baby Bruiser Robot’ (it is a tough opponent as you would expect for a warbot), the various NPCs (including both Hiver and K’kree), and the Hiver Explorer starship and the K’kree Xeekr’kir! merchant vessel. There is not a map of the Shudusham Robotics Conference given, but there is a cutaway of the arcology where it is held.

As with previous issues of the fanzine, The Travellers’ Digest #8 details the Subsector where the scenario takes place. This time it is the Core Subsector of the Core Sector, including both a map and its data listing, which notably includes Capital, the capital of the Third Imperium. The corollary to this is ‘Core Sector: Library Data’, which provided expanded information for the whole sector. It highlights how the world of Ameros in the Ameros subsector is being used by the megacorporation Hortalez et Cie, LIC to test a fast, century long terraforming project, which is not going as fast as projected, whilst at the Imperial Navy base on Sabsee in the Apge subsector, an advanced fusion/plasma hybrid, dubbed the FGMP-16, has been unveiled. It is full of fascinating details covering an area which is not generally visited as part of Traveller campaigns.

Gary L. Thomas continues the exploration of the characteristics that are part of Traveller’s UPP, or ‘Universal Personality Profile’. In ‘Brains, Not Brawn’, it is the turn of Intelligence to be examined in Traveller. It explores how exactly to view Intelligence in the context of the rules for Traveller and actually takes the Education characteristic into account, looks at how to handle the gap between the players’ own mental acumen versus that of their characters. In this, the Game Master will need to account for what a character knows versus what his player knows, such as Doctor Theodor Krenstein’s skill of Robotics-5 versus what his prospective player will know. Ultimately, the article differentiates between Intelligence as brains, common sense, and quick-wittedness and Education as accumulated knowledge and training, and presents basic skill rolls, using the UTP—or ‘Universal Task Profile’—for both. The article may well be obvious in its conclusion, but it is interesting to see what how parts of the UPP were considered at the time.

The Travellers’ Digest #8 comes to close with a pair of technical articles. The first of these examines the transmission of information in much of Charted Space. ‘Hand Computers’ (actually wrist-mounted) by Gary L. Thomas looks at how the hand computer is used in the Third Imperium and beyond, how information is updated on it, and so on. This is a ‘future tech of the past’ type article looking at how an advanced technological device works in the then very far future, when today, we have very similar devices widely available. The technical specifications are given and how the information is accessed is explored, primarily through a subscription service, which is updated when new starships, typically the Scout Service’s X-Boats, arrive and transmit new data packets to local servers. Of course, there are limitations too, including how a user might search available databases and that does not take into account network problems. The ramifications feel very familiar to today, such as checking a fact to settle an argument or getting the latest weather details, but at the time, this would have been quite literally Science Fiction.

The second and last is ‘Beyond 101 Robots’. In what feels like a very robot-focused issue, The Travellers’ Digest #8 expands upon the supplement 101 Robots with more examples. Five designs are given from the Naasirka corporation. They include a ‘Ship’s Boat Pilot Robot’, a ‘Clerk Robot’, a ‘Servant Robot’, and so on. All decent designs and would fill certain niches in a campaign if so needed.

Physically, The Travellers’ Digest #8 is, as with all of the issues so far, very obviously created using early layout software. However, there is a marked improvement in the quality of the artwork, even so.

The Travellers’ Digest #8 is an enjoyably readable issue. The scenario is perhaps a little too short, but the supporting material is excellent and the ‘Hand Computers’ article is delightfully prescient and archaic at the same time. Overall, a solidly put together issue.

1987: Block Mania

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

—oOo—

Sometimes the choice of game to review is not yours to make. So, it is with this review. The death of Richard Halliwell, the co-designer of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, as well as Space Hulk and Dark Future was announced on Monday, May 3rd, 2021. Although not a player of wargames, I am a fan of what he designed and created. This is a review of one of his many designs, all of which were popular and well received.

—oOo—

In the twenty-second century, the majority of the citizens of Mega-City One live in vast tower blocks, each a cramped claustrophobic world unto its own. Each block has its own shops, schools, hospitals, parks, and more, its citizens resigned to a life of rampant unemployment and welfare benefits and rarely needing to leave the confines of the block. Everything they, if not want, can be found within the confines of their block, so as boring and as frustrating as their lives are, to each citizen, their block is their home and their identity, and if their lives are boring and frustrating, it is not the fault of the government—there is no government, then they need someone else to blame. That someone else is their neighbouring blocks. Perhaps the citizens, or blockers, of these neighbouring blocks are too rich or too poor, too noisy or too quiet and untrustworthy, too arrogant or too cowardly, unfriendly or hostile, or… Or the reason does not matter, because it is enough to turn a simple insult of one blocker made by a blocker of a rival block, a juvie rumble between rival blocks, or even a pre-emptive strike by a rival block is enough to aggravate the rivalries between blocks into an all-out confrontation between their citizens and their city-def squads. And an all-out confrontation between the citizens and the city-def squads of rival blocks can turn into a war! A war that can escalate into one block invading the other and planting bombs and setting fires sufficient to bring the whole block down! Of course, that is until the Judges, the combined policemen, judges, juries, and executioners of Mega-City One respond to the conflict and intervene to bring it to a permanent end!

This is the set-up for Block Mania, a two-player board game for players aged fourteen and up set in the Judge Dredd universe. In Block Mania, each player takes control of a single block—Sammy Fox or Buddy Holly Block—and the enraged citizens or Blockers who reside there. Armed with flamers, missile defence lazers, missile launchers, spit guns, and stump guns, City-Def units, Crocks (senior citizens), Juvies, and Spugs (really mean Juvies) will attack their rival block or defend their own. Futsies (suffering from Future Shock) will go crazy and attack anyone, Fatties rolling on belliwheels will charge and squash their rivals, Mobs will go on the rampage, Juvies and Spugs can scrawl really demeaning and demoralising graffiti, the alien hungry, hungry Kleggs will fight for anyone and chomp anyone they can, and demolition charges can be laid, firebombs places, and fires set, both of which will severely weaken a Block—and may even bring it down!

Block Mania is played out over two boards placed side-by-side and which each depicts a vertical side view of each Block. Laid side-by-side, they are connected by Mega-Ways for vehicle traffic, Pedways for foot traffic, and a Sky-Rail for quick transit. Both Blocks have balconies from which attacks can be launched and targeted, and upon which units aboard Power Boards or wearing Bat Suits can launch themselves or land. Inside movement can be eased up down the Block via the Elevators, down via Grav Chutes, and across the open spaces of Civic spaces. Once inside, Banks can be looted, really demoralising graffiti can be left in Civic spaces, Shopping Malls can be looted, and Power Houses can be switched off, which turns off the elevators, pedways, and lights! Besides the two boards, Block Mania includes some one-hundred-and-eighty counters, depicting the various units and pieces of Armoury (guns) and Hardware (equipment). Each unit has three stats—Command Value, Strength Value, and Movement Allowance. The Command Value is its cost to be activated, the Strength Value is its defensive score, and the Movement Allowance how many movement points it has when activated. Armoury counters have a damage bonus and a range value. Most of the counters are an inch-square, though the conditional marker counters, such as Fire and Collapse are a little smaller.

As well as moving his counters around the two maps, a player also has Mania cards, which give him certain bonuses and advantages during play as well as adding flavour. There are fifty-four of these and they are double-sided. One side is the Justice side, and depicts the forces and equipment that the Justice Department will deploy against the two warring Blocks—and thus both players—in the End Game phase, such as ‘Stumm Gas’, ‘Kleggs Go Home’, and ‘Riot Foam’. On the other side, the Mania cards depict events and bonuses which will benefit a player when used. For example, ‘Reinforcements’ lets a player deploy two units without paying the Command Point cost, ‘Kleggs’ allows a player to hire the mercenary aliens or take control of the Kleggs already in play (so control of them can switch back and forth), and ‘Kaboom!’ which has a player’s City-Def secretly plant a thermo-Bomb in the rival Block and allows him to place three Fire markers anywhere in the enemy Block. Throughout the game, each player holds three Mania cards and always draws another one at the end of his turn, so each player should play one every turn. Lastly, there are two books in Block Mania, both in landscape format. One is the Rulebook, the other is The Blockers’ Manual, a reference to the various counters and Mania cards.

Set-up involves placing the two boards side-by-side, each player receiving three Mania cards with another sixteen set aside for the Endgame phase, and receiving four random Blocker counters and their Hardware or Armoury counters if necessary, and again drawn randomly. They are placed wherever a player like sin his Block. The rest of a player’s counters—Blockers, Armoury, and Hardware—are placed in cups or stacks face down, so that they can also be drawn randomly. The game is played in turns each comprised of four phases—Command, Defensive Fire, Combat, and End Phase. In the Command Phase, the active player rolls the game’s two six-sided dice to generate Command Points, and then spends them to deploy new Blockers, activate Blockers in play and use their Movement Allowance to move, and spend on extra movement. No Command Points need to be spent in the other phases, but the limited number of Command Points per turn, except when a player rolls very well or plays the right Mania card, will force a player to focus on a few—even just one or two—units per turn, and thus make a few choices per turn. Overall, this should keep play relatively brisk.

In the Defensive Fire phase, the non-active player can shoot at adjacent enemy Blockers and in the Combat phase, the active player can attack—shoot or close assault—with his Blockers, make Loot, Arson, or Firefighting attacks against a target square. Rolls of six or more on the dice succeed for most actions, although in combat, the target’s Strength is deducted from the roll, whilst the damage bonus for the Armoury counter is added. During the End phase, rolls are made for chances of Collapse, Fire damage, and Catastrophic damage. Both Collapse and Fire damage causes Structural Damage markets to be added to a Block, though Fire damage can be prevented from spreading by firefighting. More Structural Damage markers in a square increases the likelihood of a collapse and the addition of a Collapse marker, and if a player rolls five dice and the total is lower than the number of Collapse markers, down comes the Block!

Play continues until the Mania cards run out and the Endgame begins. This means that a game should never last more than thirty-six turns before the Endgame is triggered. When it is, the discard pile is then shuffled, along with the sixteen cards set aside at the start of the game. A player must play one card on his turn and must use the Justice side of the card, not the Mania side. A Justice card will typically remove a Blocker from play, so the Endgame turns into a race to do as much damage to the rival Block before a player runs out of Blockers. The game ends when the last Blocker is removed from play or if both Blocks have collapsed. At this point, each player receives Defeat Points for damage done to his Block, locations Looted, graffiti left in his Block, Blockers defeated, and a whole lot of Defeat Points if his Block was brought down. The player with the least amount of Defeat Points is the winner and is given official permission by the rules to taunt his actually defeated opponent.

Block Mania is raucous, silly fun, and chaotic from start to finish. Which it should be, because none of the Blockers are necessarily trained soldiers and they are not acting in a co-ordinated fashion, often just grabbing what Armoury or Hardware that they can and rushing to attack the rival Block or defend against the invading Blockers. Which is modelled with the random drawing of Blockers, Armoury, and Hardware counters, and the randomly determined number of Command Points a player receives each turn. Plus, once any fires are set alight and bombs placed, there is always the increasing chance of the whole thing, including a player’s Block collapsing. And arguably, there can be no greater joy than seeing your rival’s Block collapse. It does not matter that you are going to spend decades in an Isocube when your inevitable arrest by a Judge comes to pass. Ultimately, the forces of the Law and Justice—and no to say life (or the game)—are against you, but after all, your rival’s defeat is greater than yours!

Block Mania is also complex fun in places too. The idea that you would get so angry and so crazy as to actually attack our neighbours is satirically funny in a dark way, especially with some of the Blocker units each player gets to deploy. Of course, much of this is drawn upon the satire of the Judge Dredd comic strip and universe, but in Block Mania, a player can have a Futsie scrawl in Civic space, Crocks fly between the Blocks on Power Boards and Loot a Bank, and Fatsies with Belliwheels trundling across the Pedway to slam into the City-Def on the other side. Which is all great fun, but thirty years on some players might have an issue with the idea of actively working to bring down a tower block. That said, this probably less of an issue than it would have been in the past. The complexity comes in some of the fiddley little details, such as working out how movement works, as it is often dependent upon where a Blocker is and what means of movement a player wants it to use—by foot or Elevator or Grav Chute or Pedway, and tracking elements of the game, such as fires and collapses. In comparison, combat is fairly simple.

Physically, Block Mania is well presented. The boards and counters are done on thick cardboard and illustrated in full colour with artwork drawn from the Judge Dredd universe, as are the Mania cards. The two books, the Rulebook and The Blockers’ Manual are done in the shades of blue and white and are neat and tidy. The Rulebook includes both Designer’s Notes and Players’ Notes, the latter some advice for play. The Rulebook does need a careful study, because there are lots of little rules that apply in different situations, and that does mean that Block Mania is anything other than a casual game.

Block Mania was originally published by Games Workshop in 1987. It was not the first time that Games Workshop would visit the Judge Dredd universe, having previously done so in 1982 with the Judge Dredd board game. However, despite Games Workshop being better known for publishing the much-loved Judge Dredd The Roleplaying Game, Block Mania always remained a fondly remembered game. The subject matter was also popular enough to be the subject of another game, Judge Dredd: Block War, published by Game and A Curry in 2018. Then in 2020, Rebellion Games, the games arm of the publisher of 2000 AD republished Block Mania and its sequel, Mega Mania, as a pair of handsome limited-edition replicas. This is the version of the board game being reviewed.

It would be inaccurate to describe Block Mania as being wholly British Ameritrash. Yes, the game comes with an H-Wagon or two’s worth of theme and applies that throughout, and yes, the game includes a fair degree of randomness, whether that is the random drawing of Blocker, Armoury, and Hardware counters, or the random determination of Command Points from turn to turn. Yet, Block Mania is also a classic counter and dice wargame, no surprise given that it is designed by Richard Halliwell, the co-designer of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and in the use of Command Points, the game has the feel of a miniatures wargame where the limited activation of units from turn to turn is a feature. Plus, there are some complexities in the mechanics which means that it is not as much of a throwaway game.

Rowdy and clamorously chaotic, Block Mania is a darkly funny, satirical game. It is far from a perfect game, but it is a fun game to play and it is a brilliant adaptation of its source material.