[Fanzine Focus XXX] Night Soil #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 another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Another choice is the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.

Night Soil is a fanzine which takes the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game as its direct inspiration. Specifically, it draws from the artwork of the fourth printing of the core rules to provide images that have in turn inspired the creation of monsters, magical items, spells, tables, and more that the Judge can bring to her game or campaign. It is a lovely idea, but the result—at least seen in Night Soil #Zero—was a bit of a mess, a hodgepodge of miscellaneous things and entries that unless you somehow know the artwork and its order in the fourth printing of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, may have you leafing through the pages of the admittedly short Night Soil #Zero in order to find something.

Night Soil #1 picks up where Night Soil #Zero left off. Literally in the case of the page numbers! Published by Inner Ham—previously known for Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine—Night Soil #1 includes a similar mix of monsters, magic items, spells, and whatnot as the inaugural issue, but notably benefits from fewer entries. It is still a mishmash, but the ideas are developed and given time to breathe, and so consequently making them not only more interesting, but also easier for the Judge to add them to her game.

Night Soil #1 opens with the first of several monsters. This is the ‘Scare-pion’, an unpleasantly large scorpion-like creature which can bifurcate its body and then snap it shut much like a bear trap! This impedes a Player Character’s ability to fight back and the player either has the give up his character’s Action Die to retain full Armour Class or lose up to six points of Armour Class! In addition, the pinned Player Character is subject to all of the Scare-pion’s attacks, but at a bonus. This is a nasty creature and the choice between Armour Class and Action Die is delightfully cruel. In comparison, the ‘Haas Rat’ is a rat with brains equal to the Player Characters and a penchant for subterfuge and becoming the boss of gangs of normal rats, whilst the ‘Dwarves of the Brazen Shield’ is a small band available for hire and willing to take on all sorts of work—except for working against other Dwarves. They are protective of each other right up to working together defensively in combat. The ‘Bugorilla’ mixes insect and primate for a hulking beast, but one with claws and mandibles almost everywhere. Its claws can tear through the rock and its gaze is so disarming that the creature gains an extra Action Die to its attack.

The magical items begin with the ‘Polearm of Surprise’, which can suddenly extend to gain the wielder and extra attack at the beginning of a round and a bonus to attacks, whilst the ‘The Twin Daggers of Chyenar’ which deal double damage to undead and beings of umbral and shadow. They can be given as gifts by angels, but demons always pursue the wielder. The ‘Crystal of Far Magic’ is much prized by spellcasters as they can use it to both spy on others at a distance and cast magic on them. Primarily this is by Magic-Users, but Clerics can use it too. There are plenty of smaller devices too, like the ‘Dizzying Ward’, which Magic-User can cast on a scroll or book to place a disturbing effect upon anyone who attempts to read it without permission, whilst Rogues can infuse their maps with toxins to create ‘Poisoned Maps’. The inclusion of ‘Neutralising Shell’ is an oyster shell used as a scoop or spoon, but it has been enchanted to counter poisons.

Entries in Night Soil #1 get inventive and more detailed with the inclusion of ‘More uses of a Dead Giant’, which does exactly that. For example, eating the liver of a giant means that the consumer does not to have to eat or drink for two whole days and the underarm hair of a giant will keep a campsite safe from natural predators. Then the ‘Spectacles of Reading Magic’ grant the wearer the ability to read magic without actually casting it. This requires a Luck roll, so it can go disastrously wrong, cause the wearer to hallucinate, understand just one word, and so on. Whilst this provides a useful benefit, the chance of it going wrong is of course, entertaining.

The detail continues with ‘Five Ready-Made Demons’, which range from Type I to Type V demons. Rattling Men are Type I demons that grab their opponents and imprison them in their otherwise empty rib cages, and anyone imprisoned literally has to fight their skeletally demonic gaoler to escape. The Bugdog King is a Type III demon, short, always fashionably dressed cross between a praying mantis and a crossbreed dog, but with the magnificent mane of a lion, which likes to wander from realm to realm, establishing kingdoms and then destroying them. More demons are always welcome, and the chaotic nature of the demonic planes means that there is huge variety, so the Judge can always throw something different at her Player Characters. Which these options allow.

Spells in Night Soil #1 start with Energy Shaping, which enables the caster to shape and redirect any energy around him, whether it is directly affecting him or simply part of the environment around him. Ghostflames sets the undead alight, with the mindless undead having a saving throw at a penalty, whilst the intelligent undead having one with a bonus. Sound Bending enables the caster to manipulate and sculpt sound, whether that is to dampen to silence, distort it, or even sharpen it into physical shards that can be cast at targets.

Physically, Night Soil #1 is scrappy—intentionally scrappy. The artwork is likewise intentionally rough. Together with the use of the typewriter style font, the look of the fanzine is designed to match that of the fanzines and books of the seventies and even then their lack of professionalism. However, as there are fewer entries in the Night Soil #1, the issue feels far less bitty and far less scrappy.

Night Soil #1 continues from Night Soil #Zero in being a mostly entertaining medley of the miscellaneous and the muddled, organised only by reference to another book. (Which is its major problem.) The inspired sits alongside the indifferent and reading the slim volume is very much a matter of whether you are going to get the former or latter, from one page to the next—or even on the same page! Night Soil #1 is the equivalent of another blind box purchase for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game—there are definitely things in here that will inspire the Judge and there are definitely things which will leave her uninspired, but it is definitely a case of there being more of the former than the latter.

[Fanzine Focus XXIX] Night Soil #Zero

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will 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. Another choice is the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.

Night Soil #Zero takes the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game as its direct inspiration. Specifically, it draws from the artwork of the fourth printing of the core rules to provide images that have in turn inspired the creation of monsters, magical items, spells, tables, and more that the Judge can bring to her game or campaign. It is a lovely idea, but the result is a bit of a mess, a hodgepodge of miscellaneous things and entries that unless you somehow know the artwork and its order in the fourth printing of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, may have you leafing through the pages of the admittedly short Night Soil #Zero in order to find something. Even at twenty-four pages, an index or list of contents and page numbers would not have gone amiss here.

Published by Inner Ham—previously known for Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine—Night Soil #Zero, opens with its first monster, the Terrordactyl, a giant reptile bird with retchingly awful bad breath and capable of snapping a target’s neck on a roll of a natural twenty, so a nasty thing to confront the Player Characters with. Not that interesting though. Weirder though, and definitely more modern, are the Horned Lobsterclops, which fight luchadors and underprepared explorers and scientists. Beating one in initiative trades accuracy for speed—the attacker’s die decreases by one step, and if a Horned Lobsterclop licks an opponent, on a failed Will save, it can cause them to scream and writhe, attempt to persuade the nearest ally to run (causing both to lose their actions in the next round), pass out temporarily, or simply flay uselessly at the creature’s sturdy carapace. This has a much pulpier feel then the other monsters and though fun, does need a suitably pulpy style of game to use it. An easier to use creature is the Phlogiston Elemental, which can appear whenever magic goes awry and takes more damage from wooden weapons than metal ones, making it a more difficult thing to defeat.

Perhaps the most flexible monster in the inaugural issue of the fanzine, is the Dogmen. Their love of bones means they often serve necromancer, and they often make good Warriors and Clerics. They can use all four Human Classes, but only up to Third Level. Although small, they have a strong bite, possess a keen sense of smell, and even their very presence enhances the effects of bone magic! On the downside, they are easily distracted, having to make Personality checks to avoid an Action Die and being bumped down a die for Saving Throws. Amusingly, this is called ‘Squirrel!’ and is a suitably silly feature for the henchmen role they are designed to fulfil. The other henchmen-type monsters are Death Guards, who have been hired and erroneously led to believe that they have been imbued with magical ability and otherworldly prowess. As terrible as they are, what they actually have is incredible self-belief and working together can inspire themselves to improve their Armour Class, Hit Points, speed, and so on, though only once per combat for each of the four such tricks they know. This is a concept worth exploring, as it could also be applied to cultists or other devotees, and more, but here it is rough and undeveloped.

The magical items begin with Horseshoes of Returning, innocuous, but favourite weapons for Halflings as they return to the hand once thrown. The other Halfling item of magic is the Pipe of Contentment, which can be smoked to regain points of Luck and even restore damage done to Intelligence or Personality. These are nicely done, flavoursome items that will please any halfling Player Character. From small to large as ‘Dead Giant, Uses of a’ suggests exactly that, whether keeping Chaos magic at bay if properly preserved, allowing its blood to spill and render the land infertile, feasted upon to increase Personality, the skull stolen to use as a cauldron by witches, and so on. For the Wizard, there is the Horned Cap, which makes him look like a badass and so might get him a free drink or a warmer bed, just to ensure that he is happy, or even potentially gain bonuses if Luck is burned, when casting spells related to bones, animals, or fear, and the Dragon Staff, which grants the user proficiency in, but not the capability of flight and a unique, randomly determined dragon power. There is even an Enchanted Skull Bookrest against which wizards and other magic-users rest their tomes and digests of knowledge where they can easily be read and understood, only for their content to shift into gibberish the moment they are taken away from the skull. It might protect a spell or other work of magic from prying eyes, but what if an Enchanted Skull Bookrest was stolen and one of the books which rested upon it, contained something of vital importance? Who would pay to get back and why?

The Cauldron of Contact aids in the fashioning of alchemical substances from other realms when burned over wood from Elfland, Faerie Forests, or Dryad Groves, or even contacting beings from those realms if wood cauldron from Elfland, Faerie Forests, or Dryad Groves is heated in the cauldron. There are potential side effects, such as the King of Elfland finding a future opportunity to strike the user or rolling corruption or all footwear being wet inside, causing the user’s feet to rot. This could be an interesting item, but is rather undeveloped as there are no mechanics as to when the side effects occur. 

The three spells in the issue are The Eye of Chaos, Shadowblend, and Seeking Shrieking Shrike. The first is a Second Level spell for Clerics which creates a glowing eye-like symbol that grants a bonus to Chaos-aligned creatures or zaps Law-aligned creatures; the second a First Level Wizard spell that enables him and his companions to blend into the shadows to increase their Armour Class; and the third a Second Level Cleric spell that creates an animal-shaped bolt which seeks out its target and hits on the next round after being cast. Seeking Shrieking Shrike is a fun spell, the others less so, but interesting additions to find in spell books or being cast by NPCs.

Other items are found in certain locations, such as the Speaking Headstone, which might not know much about the person whose grave it marks, but has seen a lot of vistors to the cemetery over the years, so may have the answers that the Player Characters are looking for. Unfortunately, it has a tendency to complain about the lack of crematorial etiquette and actually, would like a change of scenery, or even a holiday… The Speaking Headstone is just such a ridiculous idea, but it sounds a lot of fun for the Judge to roleplay, and her players and their characters are sure to loath it. Other locations include the partially submerged skull of a titan, which can be entered and then the length of its bones explored, the deeper the Player Characters penetrate, the better their magic, and a Hanging Tree whose potential effects include wiping from existence anyone who is hung from its branches or transforming them into some form of restitution for their crimes, or even causing another corpse to animate as one of the various undead. The Judge is free to choose, two of the options suggesting story possibilities, which the last feels almost traditional.

Physically, Night Soil #Zero is scrappy—intentionally scrappy. The artwork is likewise intentionally rough. Together with the use of the typewriter style font, the look of the fanzine is designed to match that of the fanzines and books of the seventies and even then their lack of professionalism. It may or may not trigger your sense of nostalgia, but that does not necessarily detract from the readability of the contents of the fanzine.

Night Soil #Zero is a mostly entertaining medley of the miscellaneous and the muddled, organised only by reference to another book. (Which is its major problem.) The inspired sits alongside the indifferent and reading the slim volume is very much a matter of whether you are going to get the former or latter, from one page to the next—or even on the same page! Night Soil #Zero is the equivalent of the blind box purchase for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game—there are definitely things in here that will inspire the Judge and there are definitely things which will leave him uninspired.

Fanzine Focus XI: Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume One

On the tail of 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 showcased how another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will 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. Leading the way in their support for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have been the fanzines The Undercroft and Vacant Ritual Assembly. As seen in Volume Two, Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine is a fanzine of a different stripe.

Published by Inner Ham, Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine is draws from a unique source for its inspiration—the original version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Doctor John Eric Holmes and published in 1977. Specifically, it draws from Doctor Holmes’ description of the game as “fantastic, exciting, and imaginative” for both its title and its content. That content is simply a medley of monsters, magic, and more, with new spells, magical items, NPCs, and creatures created by some twenty-four or so diverse contributors, each entry drawn from a particular illustration to be found in the pages of the Holmes’ edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. What this means is that the fanzine really does consist of things that you can add to your game without any particular theme or flavour. This has the downside that some of the content is perfectly acceptable in terms of Dungeons & Dragons, but somewhat bland in terms of its fantasy. Thankfully some of the content rises above this blandness to present interesting content which will definitely add to your game.

With little ceremony, the issue jumps straight into its content, starting with magic items such as the ‘Wand of Dazzling Light’, which reduces a target’s Armour bonus and levies a to hit penalty and the Dragon Shield which grants a second Saving Throw versus Breath Weapon against the breath weapon of dragons whose colour matches that of the shield. Swords figure strongly amongst the magic items in the issue, such as ‘The Yellow Sword’ which may force the wielder to runaway when outnumbered; the ‘Sword of Demon Banishment’ can bar a demon from returning to the earthly plane if the sword is left in the body of the demon; and the ‘Scabbard of Spells & Magical Wonderment’ which comes with many possible powers which it fuses into a sword when the user decides. Each scabbard typically has four such powers—randomly generated—and they are one-use only. One other interesting item is the ‘Forked Staff’, which a Cleric or Magic-User can use to split their spells to affect multiple targets and even reduce the number of targets a spell cast at the party will affect. These are all lightly drawn, whereas ‘“Gore” – Axe of Minotaur’ is much more detailed and flavoursome, a weapon with mighty powers but also the curse of turning its wielder into a minotaur.

The new monsters start off with the ‘Unigoyle’, a wingless gargoyle with a cyclops-style horn; ‘Regal Lizard Men’—civilised lizard men and the similar ‘Iguanadyte’; and ‘Sleeping Skeletons’, the smashed bones of animated skeletons which swarm onto targets and together immobilise them. None of these monsters are really all that interesting, but where the issue does get interesting is in its development of existing monsters. So, ‘Six Orc Tribes’ provides short descriptions of Orc tribes to provide them with a little variation, whilst ‘Deformities & Personality Conflicts for Individual Orcs’ can add flavour and detail to an Orc of the Dungeon Master’s choosing, and ‘Full-Bellied Dragon’ provides rules for determining what a dragon might do on a full meal. Monsters beginning with the letter ‘h’ get interesting coverage in Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume One. So the Harpy gets the Harpy Axe which can be thrown and have it return to its fetid hands thrice a day, whilst Harpy Bones can inflict Cause Light Wounds once per day which takes the form of a large eagle-like bird pecking the target! The Queen Harpy is a stronger, tougher Harpy who commands a roost of Harpies and may be able to use certain spells. The other ‘h’ is the Hydra, which gets lots of love with ‘Seven Uses for the Many Head of a Hydra’ such as a hydra which swallows its targets for its Magic-User master and Hydra-head stew which can be boiled down to create a giant’s bane, and with ‘Hydra Lore’ which suggests some Hyra have an immortal head, whilst others breath a poison which slows men, elves, and dwarves down.

Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume One comes with relatively few spells. For the Magic-User, there is ‘Calm’, which does it says on the tin to monsters and of course, ‘Elmer’s Glue’ produces a strong adhesive, but also marks the first mention Elmer the Minotaur Wizard more fully detailed in Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two. Where that future issue has the one Dwarf NPC, this first issue has three, plus in ‘A Smattering of Typical And Atypical Gear for Dwarven NPCs’, a table of items and equipment for them (and other dwarves) to carry. ‘The Brothers Grymthrall’ describes three mercenary, ruthless Dwarves—Torvald the Badger (including his Harness of the Crag-Badger, which turns him into a battle-frenzied crag-badger); Ulryk the Unlovely, The Beast of Shrikesburg, disfigured and mute and bad-tempered; and Rangvald of Vulturespire, who wears the Cleft Shield of the Spire-Guard and the Helm of the Spire-Guard, both family heirlooms. All three NPCs, either Third or Fourth Level Swordsmen, are fully stated out and fully kitted, including magic items, ready as foes or hirelings!

Physically, Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume One is neat and tidy, with a reasonable mix of rough, if ready art, and full of content which is relatively easy to drop into a campaign world. That said, an encounter or two, or even a scenario, inspired like the rest of the contents of the fanzine, by illustrations to be found in the pages of the Holmes’ edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons, would add to its pages. Now, the quality of the content is varied and not all of it is particularly interesting. Fortunately, the interesting and the fun far outweighs the not as interesting and thus in Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume One you have a good mix of material and a format ready to be adhered to with Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two.

Fanzine Focus IX: Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will 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. Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine is a fanzine of a different stripe.

Published by Inner Ham, Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine is draws from a source for its inspiration—the original version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Doctor John Eric Holmes and published in 1977. Specifically, it draws from Doctor Holmes’ description of the game as “fantastic, exciting, and imaginative” for both its title and its content. That content is simply a medley of monsters, magic, and more, with new spells, magical items, NPCs, and creatures created by some twenty-six or so contributors, each entry drawn from a particular illustration to be found in the pages of the Holmes’ edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. What this means is that the fanzine really does consist of things that you can add to your game without any particular theme or flavour. This has the downside that some of the content is perfectly acceptable in terms of Dungeons & Dragons, but somewhat bland in terms of its fantasy. Thankfully some of the content rises above this blandness to present interesting content which will definitely add to your game.

The more interesting entries in Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two, includes Elmer, the Minotaur Wizard distrusted by Humans and Minotaurs alike, who resides in his Horned Tower home surrounded by a dense maze where he researches strange magic and answers the queries of those who brave the maze. This is followed by a description of Anvil, Dwarf of the Iron Hills, an NPC to be encountered in a dungeon, hurt after a nasty fight with goblins. Heal him and hire him, and he will be a loyal hireling to an adventuring party. These are alongside a plethora of interesting magical items, whether it is The Lady’s Favour, which depending upon the colour and alignment of the wear, improves his Charisma, grants extra Hit Points, works as a Ring of Protection +1 or Ring of Invisibility, as an Elven Cloak or Elven Boots, or cast spells that protect from or detect good and evil. Chameleon Skin Chianti is a wine which alters the texture and pigmentation of the imbiber’s skin and clothing to enhance his ability to remain undetected. It is not without its side effect, as it has the potential to also shift the imbiber’s Alignment. The Dragon’s Breath Shield is of wrought iron, rough and burned, with a grate in its centre through which  a fire can be seen burning. This fire casts light as a torch, but can be expelled like dragon’s breath once a day. Some items are slightly kooky, like Bubbles of Death, from which the user can blow bubbles that upon contact with enemy, set them aflame.

The magic spells are equally as diverse as the magical items. For example, Blue Shift shifts the caster’s vision into ultraviolet and enables him to see both in the dark and the magical emanations for magical items and artefacts, though not know what kind of magic, whilst four spells created by the Wizard, Eldicar, are also described. They include Eldicar’s Aura of Advantageous Astonishment which when cast on armour will trigger a nimbus against hostile creatures which will knock them prone and force them to lose the Initiative in the next Round. Eldicar’s Excitable Ectoplasm drops a mass of acidic mucus on a target, which adheres to and slowly burns through organic material, hardening if the target struggles. Eldicar’s Acidic Ectoplasm is a less useful spell, creating a small glob of green and metaphysical goo which can be flicked or wiped off to burn or corrode for a few Rounds. Eldicar’s Amazing Agility and Endurance allows the caster to increase a target’s Dexterity and Constitution. Oddly there are no spells for the Cleric Class in the issue.

Although there are lots of monsters described in Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two, but fewer of them really stand out in comparison to the magic items and the spells. For example, the humanoid Mannequin are utterly neutral in terms of Alignment, design, and intent such that the Dungeon Master is left what to do with them. Better still is the Speckled Muck, a clear ball of slime dotted with detritus which has a penchant for paper, parchment, and clothing, which is followed by the Morrigan Sisters. These famed Harpies—‘The Maiden’, ‘The Mother’, and ‘The Crone’—are said be avatars or high-priestesses of the grim goddess, Morrigan, and who echo the Ladies of Sorrow. Aswith the magic items, there is a streak of whimsy to the issue with its monsters, this time being the Wild Things of children’s literature fame.

Physically, Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two is tidily presented. The illustrations are rough and ready, but this means that they feel in keeping with the style of Holmes’ edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons.

With over seventy entries in this volume, there is a lot for the prospective Dungeon Master to pick and choose from. Doubtless there is something in the pages of Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two that will find its way into said Dungeon Master’s game. Nor does it matter if that game is not Holmes’ edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons, as the mechanical elements in this fanzine are simple for the Dungeon Master to develop just a few steps to fit the mechanics of the game he is running. Overall, Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two is useful in bits and places, but the Dungeon Master has the choice of which places and which bits.