[Fanzine Focus XL] Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster

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 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 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 popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but then there are outliers, fanzines for genres, let alone roleplaying games, which you would never expect to receive support in this format.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying. Published by VX2 following a successful Kickstarter campaign, this is a product which is very different in many ways. It is a fanzine for the superhero genre, it is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying, and as superhero fanzine, it actually presents a post-apocalyptic setting. All three factors make it standout as different. As the name suggests, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Rooster is the second in the series for the fanzine, but there is only a total of four issues.

The first issue in the series, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap presented an overview of its setting. This is the future of the North American continent after society was society ripped apart in 1986 by an event known as the Shock which followed the successful attempt by the mysterious Omegas to destroy a psionic computer network powered by extradimensional energy. The resulting Aftershock killed millions, made more disappear, substituted familiar landscape with alien ones, turned the sky violet, and changed some of the stars to alien ones. Governments collapsed and supervillains seized control to establish their own, ultimately dystopic fiefdoms, together known as the Supremacy. The Shock also disrupted the Grid underlying the whole of reality and weakened it, leading to the opening of ‘Gridgates’ to other worlds and aliens visiting the Earth. Reality storms imperil travel so that long term travel in in convoys and all forms of broadcast media act as vessels for a necrocosmic plague. Only the wealthy has access to any form of direct communication, whilst messages and recorded media are delivered directly. Long distance travel is via the Thunder Road, a continental network of highways and fuel stations controlled by Lord Thunder, the leader of the Sanction.

In the world of Gridshock 20XX, the Player Characters are Vectors. They possess the ability to warp the Grid and thus reality, manipulating it in their favour. Vectors are typically human, but can also be gatecrashers from other realities or hybroids—one of the genetically engineered labour force. Whilst Vectors have superpowers, they do not operate as the superheroes of old. They do not wear spandex and they do not patrol looking for crime. That, combined with the flashiness of their powers, would make it easier for the Supremacy to find them. Instead, they travel the Thunder Road, looking for work and when they can, attempting to strike a blow for justice and freedom. Vectors are meant to be proactive and fight for what is right, forge new alliances, push their powers to the limits of reality—and perhaps beyond, reclaim hope and rebuild civilisation, and explore the secrets of old world and the new.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster is the character book for the series, the bulk of which is devoted to twelve Vector Templates that a player can chose from. These have one of five sources—Genetic, Mystic, Necrocosmic, Omegalithic, and Technologic. Genetic means that the source is biological; Mystic means the source is derived from a bond or pact with the supernatural; Necrocosmic is tied to the Necrocosm, the dark echo of where daemons come from; Omegalithic, linked to the weird crystalline substance salvaged from encounters with the Omegas before the Shock; and Technologic means that a device or cybernetics are the source. The Vectors Templates consist of the Ace, which is skill and training focused; the Fabricator, equipped with an illegal portable omegatechnology factory; Free Agent, which has been in stasis since before the Shock and uses a psionic amplifier for its powers; a Gatecrasher, an alien from another world or dimension; the Gridjockey, which can use any power by rewiring the Grid temporarily; the Hybroid is a human genetically engineered with animal DNA; the Neogenic has unique superhuman abilities; the Outcaster is empowered by the Dreaming Mother; the Revenant had his lifeforce drained by an unliving being from the Deadside, but is still in possession of his Geist and still needs to feed on the lifeforce of others; the Roguebot is illegal in the Supremacy; the Suitjack is bonded with a relic battlesuit of pre-Shock Omegatechnology; and the Ultra-Knight is a hunter of daemanoids and other evildoers.

Besides the base stats, each Template instructs the player to select one or more powers and specialities, whilst choosing three qualities from the list given. A player can take a Template as written, but each Template also suggests three variants. For example, the Ace Template also gives the Neo-Ninja, the Neutraliser, and the Vigilante as alternatives, whilst for the Outcaster, there is the Daemonologist, Exorcist, and Warlock. In each case, there is an explanation too, of how to create them from the given base Template. All together, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster provides thirty-six possible Vector types beyond the base twelve for a total of forty-eight options.

The last two pages of Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster details a pair of ‘Threats and Menaces’. The first is Daemons, of which there are several types and which can only assume physical form in Realspace for a limited amount of time. The information here expands upon that given in Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap, whilst the second type is given ready made stats. These are for Exhumans, those who have had their lifeforce drained by an unliving being from the Deadside. Ordinary humans drained are converted into Shamblers, whilst Superhumans so drained return as Exhuman NPCs after a few panels. Several types are included, like the Annexator, which boosts the abilities of other Exhumans, the Demolisher—which can be formed from ordinary Shamblers in time, and the Shambler itself. These nicely tie in the with the Revenant Template earlier in the book as well as expanding the threats available for the Game Master to use.

Physically, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster is very nicely presented in swathes of red and black. The artwork is decent, but the typography is difficult to read in places.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster is a solid continuation of Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap. It firmly focuses the player and the types of character he can create, whilst for the Game Master the Templates can be used for NPCs as well as using the monsters.

[Fanzine Focus XL] The Phylactery Issue #2

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 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 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. Not every fanzine for the Old School Renaissance need be dedicated to a specific retroclone, such as The Phylactery.

The Phylactery Issue #2, published by Planet X Games in September, 2021, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, is a fanzine for the Old School Renaissance rather than any specific fantasy retroclone. Thus, it works for Old School Essentials or The King of Dungeons or Labyrinth Lord. As with The Phylactery Issue #1, it is a collection of magical items, NPCs, monsters, and a scenario or two. It presents the Game Master with a relentless barrage of choice and options, some of which is ready to use, some of which is not, and so will require the Game Master to develop and add some stats. Everything comes with background elements—some specifically so to make them interesting—enabling the Game Master to flesh out her campaign setting as well as introduce an item of magical power. All of it is written by Levi Combs, the publisher, and his words are backed up with some decent artwork and excellent maps.

The issue’s magical items begin with ‘The Skullstaff of Stelos’, the first of its many magical items and it is a big one. Originally crafted for Stelos the Necromancer, it is a great, gnarled staff, topped with a charred, horned skull. The wielder can command undead as a Tenth Level Cleric (or four Levels higher, if already an evil Cleric) as well as cast various spells and talk to the undead. However, it will transform the wielder into an undead creature as well, but he will not accept that he is changing. This is a very nicely detailed item that any Game Master is going to want to equip her big evil villain with.

‘Of Longstriders and Giant Killers – Renowned Rangers of the North’ is inspired by Tolkien’s Aragon and describes five tough NPCs and their most feared weapon or magical items. For example, the Dragon-bone Spear is a Spear +2 once wielded by Helka ‘Red-Spear’, known for her hatred of Frost Giants after her family was killed for them. Not all of the NPCs are dead, like Belken ‘Stormbreaker’, who wears The Counsel of Crows, a silver torc that enables him to talk to crows and other corvids as per the spell, Speak with Animals. He is so feared that even a murder of crows overhead is enough to scare away bands of Orcs and Goblins. None of these NPCs is given stats, so the mechanical focus is on their magical items.

The magical items continue with ‘Magic Armours and Weapons of Legend’. They include The Alabaster Armour of St. Saldric the Blessed, a set of plate armour sacred to the god of justice, all alabaster white, except for the left gauntlet, which is left plain to symbolise the one-handed nature of the god! It is Platemail +2 and can reflect spells as per the Ring of Spelling Turning. This article adds another three, nicely detailed items with lore aplenty that can be worked into a campaign. And then, ‘Secrets From the Lich’s Crypt - A Whole Buncha Weird Ole Crap in a Dead Wizard’s Lab’ gives the Game Master a pick and mix of things to fill a wizard’s laboratory, such as the Elixir of Curdled Swarms, which when imbibed causes the drinker to wrack with convulsions and then vomit Ochre Jellies under his command! This develops a thematic line of oozes and jellies that runs through the issue, and is one of nine fascinating items that add spice to a particular location or can be pulled out and placed elsewhere in the Game Master’s campaign.

The monsters and NPCS start with ‘Strange Things That Live Underground And Other Weird Creatures’. They include Shroud Spiders that combine the worst features of giant spiders and undead shadows; Ooze Cultists of the Slime-Lord which have melted faces and lurk in the underworld, capturing the unwary and transforming captives into gelatinous horrors or feeding them to the carnivorous jellies of their slime-farms; and Worm Polyps from the Void Beyond, great green sacs that hang in fungal forests that when they burst, shower the area with carnivorous worms whose continued bite will transform the victim into a monster (sadly, the actual monster is not detailed).

The legendary Grandmother of Witches is fully described in ‘She Rides on the Wind – Baba Yaga, Hag Queen of the North’. The equivalent of a Twentieth Level Magic-User, she can even learn Cleric spells and has an array of monstrous abilities, the equivalent to a god. Her magical items are detailed too and all together she is a fearsome foe, should she turn her attention to the Player Characters. ‘Hali Oakenspear, Wandering Cleric of the Luck Goddess’ is given a full write-up as an NPC, an Eighth Level Cleric who has dedicated herself to wandering the land and doing good.

The last of the monsters are detailed in ‘Here There Be Monsters!’. The four entries include ‘Sodden Bastards’, the unfortunate souls of those who drowned at sea and now lurk in shipwrecks, ready to instil fear in those they surprise, and the ‘Murdershroom’, a fungal horror formed from the energies of a magical gate or the fallout of a demon summoning gone wrong, which stalks victims in the dark of the underground, breathing toxic spores on them causing hallucinations, and after slaying them, taking their bodies back to a corpse farm to attract more victims.

Further flavour is added ‘More Forbidden Demon Cults of the Outer Void’, which describes three demons and their cults, like ‘Mulg, The Bloated One’, a mountain of yellowing fat and bone whose approach is heralded by a vile, unwashed odour, and who revels in greed, deviancy, and worse, and who can consume anything. Like the other two entries, it is accompanied by a ‘Fun Demon Cult Fact!’, in this case the rise of Mlug from a minor demon to a greater demon after it got lost on the astral plane where it gnawed away at the body of a dead deity!

The Phylactery Issue #2 includes three scenarios of varying length. Deigned for Player Characters of roughly Eighth Level, ‘Brood-Hive of the Slime God’ describes a set of caves near the fishing village of Urtag Horn, several of whose inhabitants have gone missing, been beset by strange dreams, and even gone mad. The local clergy want the matter investigated, the mad man indicating the cause as being inside the caves. These are slime-encrusted and very nicely detailed and quite a tough little dungeon that can played through in a single session, two at most. It is nicely detailed and its location makes it easy to add to a campaign, as is ‘Grindhouse Deep Crawl #1’. This is a dungeon complex intended to be added to a bigger dungeon, a half-finished and forgotten annex. There is no real theme to the set of nine rooms, instead being a set of well designed and interesting encounter written around a very attractive map. There are at least two shafts that drop to lower dangers; a tomb of Prefect Thrim, a cleric consumed by a carnivorous creeper who thinks that it is the cleric and if the Player Characters can speak to plants it might be able to answer questions they pose, whilst the vegetables it grows have divine spell effects if eaten; and a Demon-Frog’s Fane, where the wounded may be given its blessing if they bathe in its waters before its bloated statue and let it feed on more blood! Lastly, ‘It Came From Spawn Vat X!’ is more of an encounter, the Player Characters going to investigate the tower of a well-regarded wizard, which has recently exploded, and facing the last of his experiments gone awry. It is short and simple and very easy to prepare.

In between, ‘Twelve Things a Magic Mouth Would Say’ is a fun table that can be used to unnerve the Player Characters or lay the seed for a puzzle or adventure hook. Similarly, ‘10 Wayward Oddfellows You Might Meet on Any Given Night at Old Man Rumple’s’ gives a table of NPCs can be used in the same fashion, whether to add colour or spur further adventure. The latter is very similar to ‘1d10 Tough SOBs, Roadhouse Hoodlums, Bored Adventurers, and Mean Ole Bastards You Might Meet in a Tavern’ from The Phylactery Issue #1. Barring the stats, they do draw comparison with the ‘Meatshields of the Bleeding Ox’, the regular collection of NPCs from the Black Pudding fanzine, and they are just as useful.

Physically, The Phylactery Issue #2 is very nicely presented. It is well written, and both the artwork and cartography are excellent.

The Phylactery Issue #2 continues the stream of content begun in the first issue, presenting the Game Master with a wealth of options—monsters, treasures, and more that she pick and choose from to add to her campaign. Some of it needs a little development, even if only to fold into a campaign setting, but there is so much here to choose from and use, that a Game Master is not going to be disappointed with the content. (The only disappointment might be when the author runs out of steam!) Suitable for any Old School Renaissance retroclone, The Phylactery Issue #2 continues the torrent of ideas and dangers and more, still giving the Game Master a wealth of choice and content to work with.

[Fanzine Focus XL] LOWBORN Issue 2

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed 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 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. Most, but not all fanzines draw from the Old School Renaissance. Some provide support for much more modern games.

Lowborn is ‘An Independent Grim Perilous Fanzine for Zweihänder RPG’. As the subtitle suggests, this is a fanzine for the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, published in 2017 and thus modern, but actually a retroclone of another roleplaying game. That roleplaying game is the definitive British roleplaying game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, published by Games Workshop in 1986.

Lowborn Issue 2 was published in August, 2020. The content begins with with ‘The Dark Order’ by Peter Rudin-Burgess. This is a scenario set in the chancery of Edessa, below the city of Outremer. This is a murder mystery set below the city where single-sex work gangs labour at feeding the great steam turbines. Gang Master Zangi leads a gang of twenty-four free women who, in turn, drive sixty female mutant slaves, all loading city waste into the furnaces. Gang Master Zangi has disappeared, but now her skull has been raked out of Number 2 furnace. Shortly after, a new gang leader is appointed, and then it happens again when another gang master is found boiled alive and a new gang member is also appointed. This is followed by the murder of a bar owner and then another gang master. The scenario is presented with a lot of set-up up front and then followed by the plot hooks and the various genres in which the scenario might be used on. The scenario needs a lot of work to run effectively with clues to connect the murders to the culprits and it is also only halfway through the scenario is it mentioned that it is for Dark Astral: Chapbook for ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG, the Science Fiction equivalent setting for the ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG. It is mentioned on the cover, though. The map of the lair is by Dyson Logos, so good.

‘New Distinguishing Marks’ by Adrian Kennelly is literally that, a table of entries like ‘No chin’ or ‘Unbending knee’. Chuck Kranz’s ‘Random Space Encounters’ provides twelve encounters, again for Dark Astral: Chapbook for ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG. For example, ‘Just like in the TV shows.’ expands to ‘A tear in space erupts of the port barely out of manoeuvring range, but a strong magnetic pull of the anomaly pulls your ship in. A voice in your head echoes, “I have such wonderful sights to show you.” The darkness takes you after being dragged through the event horizon. When you come to your ships nav-computers are not able to gain bearing on where you are… or when you are.” These are fine and again something that the Game Master will need to develop.

It is not quite clear what Sean Van Damme’s ‘Introduction to Assassinations’ quite is, initially, but what it turns out to be is a means of introducing options for the budding assassin. The Claw of Retribution is the largest guild of assassins in the great city and puts up notices on a board at the West Wind Pub, where the guild previously operated from, of small jobs, or rather, assassinations of minor folk that it has been hired to do. Its members can perform them, but it lets prospective members undertake them as a test. There are thirteen such tasks, not always hits or deaths, such as burning down a distillery that is not guild affiliated or forcing a member of the faith to stop preaching in the docks. The Game Master will need to develop the hooks, but there are some fun options here that will support a grittier, dirtier style of play for thug and thief type characters.

‘Order And Corruption: Purity Points’ by Lyle Hayhurst gives an extension to the Corruption Points of ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG. Corruption Points are gained for immoral acts, giving in to personal weakness, and even being injured, and will potentially force a Player Character down a dark path. This article suggests another path that a Player Character can go up. By committing acts of goodness, being tolerant of those different to himself, protecting the innocent, giving to the poor, being merciful to a villain, and more, a Player Character can gain Purity Points. Like gaining Disorders for Corruption Points, he can gain Blessings for accruing enough Purity Points like becoming a ‘Friend of Animals’ or gaining a ‘Inner Glow’ of Purity. The article suggests that a Player Character can earn both Corruption Points and Purity Points and need to be tracked, and what this does is add some flexibility and complexity to the play and reward a player for good roleplaying whatever his character’s action.

Ignacio M. writes three entries in the issue. The first, ‘Learning from Different Arcanas’, suggests a way in which an Arcane Magick user can cast magick from a Wind other than his own. For each symbol that Player Character has to pass through to get between his Wind he has studied and the one he wants to cast from, there is a penalty to the Incantation test and if the Channelling test is failed, then extra Chaos dice has to be rolled. The rule is quick and simple and potentially dirty if thing goes wrong! He also suggests ‘New Combat Actions’ with ‘Oh No You Don’t’ which enables a Player Character to study the ebb and flow of the battle and interrupt the action of a foe; ‘Goad and Deter’ to slow a foe’s action down; and ‘Leave It Open’, in which he tricks a foe to gain a bonus on his next attack. These are decent additions.

Lastly, ‘Carnival II’ continues the description of a magical carnival—a common trope in roleplaying games inspired by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay such as Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG—begin in Lowborn Issue 1. However, unlike in many cases what lies behind the magic in the carnival is not necessarily dark or dangerous, but that rather its various members are all anthropomorphic animals. They include a middle-aged anthro-rabbit who controls his perfect puppets though his voice alone and Priscilla, middle-aged anthro-hedgehog who is also a very skilled physician, alchemist, and herbalist, and exotic dancers that somehow entice audience to buy the overpriced drinks at their show. The latter is perhaps the only real danger in the carnival, but others might see it differently and act accordingly. This adds another three tents and their occupants to add to the three previously described, so there is yet room for expansion. If there is an issue for the article, it is the inclusion of the anthropomorphic NPCs and whether that fits a Game Master’s campaign. She, of course, has the right to change such details and the various NPCs could be hiding something else instead. Bar some scenario ideas or hooks, ‘Carnival’ offers an intriguing and different type of circus, one with plenty of room for expansion and development.

Physically, Lowborn Issue 2 is a bit untidy and rough around the edges, plus it needs a slight edit. The layout is also a little tight in places.

Lowborn Issue 2 is a mixed bag with some content more useful and more interesting than others. ‘Introduction to Assassinations’ is packed with great hooks for a bruising lowlife campaign and like ‘Order And Corruption: Purity Points’, has plenty of roleplaying potential. Elsewhere, several of the articles are rough and could be clearer in their set-up, let alone their execution.

[Fanzine Focus XL] Carcass Crawler Issue #4

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

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

Carcass Crawler is ‘The Official Fanzine Old-School Essentials zine’. Published by Necrotic Gnome, Old School Essentials is the retroclone based upon the version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay and published in 1981, and Carcass Crawler provides content and options for it. It is pleasingly ‘old school’ in its sensibilities, being a medley of things in its content rather than just the one thing or the one roleplaying game as has been the trend in gaming fanzines, especially with ZineQuest. To date, Carcass Crawler #1, Carcass Crawler Issue #2, and Carcass Crawler Issue #3 have all focused on providing new Classes and Races, both in ‘Race as Class’ and ‘Race and Class’ formats as well as general support for Old School Essentials, and Carcass Crawler Issue #4 is no exception.

Carcass Crawler Issue #4 was published in December, 2024 and includes three new Classes, four gods, eight monsters, a shelf of arcane grimoires and their contents, expanded rules for brewing, purchasing, sampling, and describing potions, and a short adventure. The first two of the three Classes draw heavily from Tolkien’s Middle-earth and specifically The Shire. The first is the ‘Halfling Hearthsinger’ by James Spahn and Gavin Norman, which specialises in collecting and memorising legends, lore, and folk tales. The Class’ primary abilities are ‘Foster Friendship’, enabling the Hearthsinger to temporarily make friends if he can tell a story; recall Lore about monsters, folk tales, legends, and even magical items; and ‘Read Languages’ that are non-magical, including codes and dead languages. He can also better listen at doors and as a ‘Rumour Monger’ learn more rumours from others! Eventually, when he has enough money, he can establish tavern, although there is no Level requirement. The ‘Halfling Hearthsinger’ has a maximum of eight Levels and is a Class designed for interaction, so suitable for players who like to talk and build relationships.

The second new Class is also Halfling related. Designed by James Spahn, the ‘Halfling Reeve’ is more obviously based on the Bounder, who patrols the borders of The Shire. The Class must be Lawful and is a capable forager and hunter, good at stealth, and is also a Goblin Slayer and a Wolf Hunter. In addition, the Class also is able to cast Druidic magic at higher Levels. Again, this Class has a maximum of eight Levels. The Class is effectively a variant upon the Ranger, but pleasingly effective.

The third Class is Gavin Norman’s ‘Arcane Bard’. This is intended to be like the jack-of-all-trades Bard Class from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, combining skills such as Climb Sheer Surfaces, Hear Noise, Pick Pockets, and Read Languages with the Lore ability as per the ‘Halfling Hearthsinger’ and the casting of Arcane magic. The only musical benefit that the ‘Arcane Bard’ gains is an ‘Anti-Charm’ effect against song-based powers like that of the fairies or Sylvan creatures. With its mixture of Thief abilities and ability to cast magic, the Class is more of a generalist and not quite as interesting a design. It can go up to a maximum of fourteen Levels.

‘Deities and Cults’ by Chance Dudinack and Gavin Norman describes four gods, the benefits of worshipping them, and their spells. For example, ‘The Black Alderman’ is the god of skulls, dentistry, and organ dirges who directs his worshippers to collects skulls for him, including those of rare monsters and influential personages. Some worshippers, known as ‘Bonesmiths’, work as travelling dentists and bone-setters, but its spellcasters gain traits such as a pallid complexion for gaining the ability to cast First Level spells, a sunken, skull-like facial features for Second Level spells, and more. The spells include Skull Speech, which causes a skull to speak, even that of an undead skull; Skull Sentry, which sets a skull to chatter its teeth if anyone of the designed type comes close; Danse Macabre, which makes bones come to life and dace; and Control Skull, which gives complete control of a skull, but not the rest of the bones, to the caster. The other gods include a deity of redemption and light, once a fiendish deity, but now reformed; a god of insane, danger, perils and risk, which revels in seeing others overcome great odds and thus endlessly creates them; and a god of the weird deeps of the Underworld. These are all small cults and will really enhance a campaign as very nicely themed faiths and there are some entertaining spells to go with them as well as some nice roleplaying hooks, whether for a player or the Game Master.

‘The Mage’s Grimoire’ by Brad Kerr and Gavin Norman adds more spells. These consist of Burning Hands, Feather Fall, Shocking Grasp, Unseen Servant, Pyrotechnics, Ray of Enfeeblement, Shrinking Cloud, Blink, Slow, and Tongues. These are all going to be familiar from Dungeons & Dragons, specifically for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but which do not appear in Old School Essentials. Now they do. The article also add five tomes, packed with spells, including several of those listed earlier. Not only do they add spells that can be studied and learned, but also flavour. For example, the ‘Book of the Hideous Frog, written by the Frogmancer Neem, is a wide, frog-faced tome bound in damp frog flesh that wiggles in an unnerving fashion and which causes frogs to spawn in the owner’s clothes and belongings each night! These are all great fun and will just add a little bit of flavour to a campaign and inspiration for the Game Master to create more should she need them.

Gavin Norman’s ‘Strange Brew’ expands the basic guidelines for potions included under ‘Magical Research’ in Old School Essentials with a plethora of options. It allows any character able to create magical items to brew potions or if not, hire an alchemist. An alchemist NPC can brew potions at half the time it would take a Player Character, but is an expensive hireling—1,000 gp per month, and that does not include the cost of the actual potions. The article does not discuss either Potions of Delusion or poison, but otherwise, keeps things simple by approximating potion effects with particular spells, such as a Potion of Control Undead with the spell Control Monster and a Potion of Speed with the spell Haste. It also suggests possible potion ingredients, like a Storm Giant’s heart for a Potion of Giant Control or Pegasus feather for Potion of Levitation; what hints might be gained on a sampling a potion for the first time; and a table of options to describe potions. Handling alchemy and brewing potions in Dungeons & Dragons-style games can get bogged down in a lot of detail, but the guidelines here opt for simplicity and clarity. It does not delve too much into the how and why of brewing potions, but suggests ways in which the ‘Magical Research’ rules can be expanded and the use of potions in game play can be enhanced.

Penultimately, Gavin Norman details eight new monsters in ‘Terrors of the Dark’. These are all creatures to be found in the depths of the Underworld. They include the Grue, a thing of magical darkness found stalking desolate places; Oil-Mites, tiny, rock-like mites that lurk in webs and drop onto passing adventurers to consume their flasks of oil; and the Torch-Bearer’s Ghost, the spirit of some poor townsfolk who met his end in a dark dungeon after being hired as a torchbearer by an adventuring party and now haunts the dungeon, carrying a flickering light, and potentially leading other adventurers to their doom in revenge! This is a delightfully thematic octet of threats and dangers several of which play upon the fear of the dark for both players and their characters and their need for light.

Lastly, ‘Noximander’s Cave’ by Chance Dudinack and Brad Kerr is a rare inclusion of a scenario in the pages of Carcass Crawler and a rare appearance of a scenario for old School Essentials for Player Characters of Fourth and Fifth Level. With a map by Glynn Seal, it describes a small complex of rooms and caves used by the illusionist Noximander the Tenebrous to worship Moumb and conduct further research. Located under a city, builders recently broke into the complex via a cellar and the adventurers are hired to investigate. This is a decent mini-dungeon using many of the monsters from ‘Terrors of the Dark’ that could be played through in a session or two.

Physically, Carcass Crawler Issue #4 is well written and well presented. The artwork is excellent and the cartography good.

Although Carcass Crawler describes itself as a fanzine, it is not really a fanzine, since much of its content is written by the designer and publisher of Old School Essentials, it is published by the publisher of Old School Essentials, and it is obviously more polished and professionally produced than most fanzines. That aside, the content in Carcass Crawler Issue #4 is a good mix of the useful and the flavoursome. The new-is spells of ‘The Mage’s Grimoire’ and the potion details of ‘Strange Brew’ are interesting, whilst the flavoursome include the ‘Halfling Hearthsinger’ and ‘Halfling Reeve’ Classes with their lovely bucolic feel, and ‘Deities and Cults’ adds delightful roleplaying details that will make any setting that bit more interesting. Overall, Carcass Crawler Issue #4 is a very enjoyable issue with plenty that will enhance any Game Master’s campaign.

[Fanzine Focus XL] Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 10

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 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 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 popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, such as Crawl! and Crawling Under a Broken Moon. Some of these fanzines provide fantasy support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but others explore other genres for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One such fanzine is the aforementioned Crawling Under A Broken Moon.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 was published in in october, 2015 by Shield of Faith Studios. It continued the detailing of post-apocalyptic setting of Umerica and Urth which had begun in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 1, and would be continued in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 2, which added further Classes, monsters, and weapons, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 3, which provided the means to create Player Characters and gave them a Character Funnel to play, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 4, which detailed several Patrons for the setting, whilst Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 5 explored one of the inspirations for the setting and fanzine, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 6 continued that trend with another inspiration, Mad Max. Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 7 continued the technical and vehicular themes of the previous issue, whilst also detailing a major metropolis of the setting. Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 8 and Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 9 were both a marked change in terms of content and style, together presenting an A to Z for the post-apocalyptic setting of Umerica and Urth.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 is different to previous and that is because it is the fanzine’s ‘monster issue’! Previous issues have detailed new monsters and creatures that the Judge can add to a Umerica and Urth campaign or her own post-apocalypse setting. From the Aetherian War Cat, Bowel Tyrant, and Concrete Giant to Xenotaur, Zilla, and Zmooph presents a total of thirteen new monsters. They include a mix of the weird and the silly and all are given a two-page write up that includes an illustration, stats, and quite a detailed description. Each also includes adventure hooks which lifts the contents far above being a simple, short, mini-bestiary.

The monster list opens with an entry very obviously inspired by one of the inspirations for the Umerica and Urth campaign setting, which is He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. This is the Aetherian War Cat, a combatant so good it has its own Deed Die and can perform its own Mighty Deeds. If a Player Character uses a Deed Die, then he can approach a riderless Aetherian War Cat and attempt to bond with it. When ridden, the only Might Deed it can perform is the ‘Assist Rider’ and the description includes a table of outcomes. The Bowel Tyrant is a tiny, intelligent alien parasite that enters via the bowels of its victims and enslaves them before its slave excretes more when it relives itself, ready in waiting for further victims. It is a bit icky, but sets up an alien invasion of a very different kind. The Concrete Giant lurks in the ruins of broken buildings, its grey, ridged skin looking like concrete enabling it to blend in readiness to ambush its victims and take them back to its lair to eaten raw. Worse are the Cyborg Concrete Giants which are created by the Technomages to lead the other Concrete Giants, being faster, tougher, and armed with shoulder-mounted grenade launchers! The three adventure hooks for the Concrete Giants include them being sent out on random destructive rampages to instil fear by the Technomages; details of where Concrete Giants are forged which could be turned into a raid or encounter; and rumours of road gangs and Concrete Giant wrecking crews actually working together.

Elsewhere, the Flying Laser Ursine, which is exactly what it sounds like, is silly and simple, whilst the Fruiti-Slush Ooze is weird and silly, a jelly formed out of the fruity, partially frozen slushies and partially by the multi-dimensional cataclysm, which do desiccating, freezing Stamina damage that leaves a wound smelling of fruit. Which fruit? Well, there is a table for that! The adventure hooks include harvesting fruity jerky form their victims for exotic gastronomes and having to stand over a cold storage tanker with some sounds of movement coming from inside it… Weird too, is the Harpoonnik, a slimy, batrachian-humanoid with a strange cylindrical mechanism where its head should be. It can fire a tongue-harpoon out of this mechanism, to spear its victims which it drags away and bludgeons them to death! The oddest are the Zmooph, tiny purplish humanoids described as being roughly three grenades tall, but with a quarter of that height consisting of large, speckled cap mushroom that blooms directly from their skull. Ruled by Patriarch Zmooph, they are mostly peaceful, but when they encounter others, they swarm in xenophobic rages and overwhelm the victims of their ire. There is no suggestion as to what they do with such victims or anything about female Zmoophs, but somehow they feel as they should be blue and wear white hats.

Physically, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 is as serviceably presented and as a little rough around the edges as the other fanzines in the line. Of course, the problem with Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 is that much of its contents have been represented to a more professional standard in the pages of The Umerican Survival Guide – Core Setting Guide, so it has been superseded and superseded by a cleaner, slicker presentation of the material.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 contains a pleasing variety of monsters and creatures—weird, silly, and even more silly (Flying Laser Ursine, really?). Now to be fair, bestiaries are not always the most exciting to read and certainly not the most exciting to review, especially if there is monster after monster and not much else. That could be case with Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10, but the adventure hooks make the entries and descriptions that much more readable and much more immediately useful. Not so much, ‘Here’s a monster I can use’, but more ‘Here’s a monster I can use and a suggestion as to how I can use it’, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 goes that little further than you would expect. Plus of course, the monsters will work with a lot of other post apocalyptic roleplaying games and not just the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game or Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic.

Miskatonic Monday #368: The Ballad of Lost Danava

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

—oOo—

Name: The Ballad of Lost Danava

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Kevin Kreiner

Setting: The far future

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifteen page, 1.58 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: H.G. Wells’ The ‘Planet’ of Dr. Moreau

Plot Hook: Forced to land on a planet where no man has been before

Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Investigators, one handout, three Mythos tomes and recordings, two Mythos monsters, and one dinosaur.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# 2nd Place Winner in Stars Are Right Scenario Outline Writing Contest

# Curiously old-fashioned Science Fiction feel

# Dinosaurs optional

# Decently done pre-generated Investigators

# Deinophobia

# Radiophobia

# Cleithrophobia

Cons

# Fairly obvious in its plotting

Conclusion

# Escape from H.G. Wells’ The ‘Planet’ of Dr. Moreau

# Short and easy to run, more of a classic stranded and escape situation than an investigation

Miskatonic Monday #367: The Lair of Dreams

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

—oOo—

Name: The Lair of Dreams

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Nick Edwards

Setting: Paris, 1890s

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Seven page, 330.92 KB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: What if art is the vector?

Plot Hook: Has a down on his luck artist fallen back into his old ways?

Plot Support: One Mythos monster

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Inspired by ‘The Mask’ from The King in Yellow by R.W. Chambers

# Short, direct, single session investigation

# Easy to prepare and run

# Easy to adapt to other cities and time periods

# Xanthophobia

# Oneirophobia

# Automatonophobia

Cons

# Keeper will need to provide NPC/monster stats

# What happens if the Investigators fail?

Conclusion

# Short, direct, and dreamy encounter with the servants of the Yellow King

# Easy to run for Cthulhu by Gaslight (and other cities and time periods)