The Other OSR: Pitcrawler

If you opened the pages of Pitcrawler and wondered if you had wandered into a ‘choose your own adventure’ path book a la the Fighting Fantasy series of solo books, then you might be forgiven for being confused about what you are holding in your hand. Once you get past it, you actually find out what Pitcrawler is and why it had to start with ‘choose your own adventure’ path book. This is because the whole ‘choose your own adventure’ path book is designed to introduce the reader to the concept of roleplaying and what a roleplaying game is, and so actually prepare the player for what Pitcrawler actually is. Which is a fantasy roleplaying game inspired by classic Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf solo adventure books, but instead of being a ‘Choose-Your-Own-Adventure’ game, it is designed to be played by two players. One is the Adventurer; the other is the Games Master. It is as simple as that, but also a lot more than that and lot less than that—and none of that is bad.

Pitcrawler is published by MacGuffin & Co., which is best known for the superlative Odd Jobs: RPG Micro Settings Vol. I, the anthology of genuinely good systemless campaign settings and ideas. Pitcrawler is both a storytelling game and not a storytelling game, in that both player and Game Master are working together to create a story and world with the player encouraged to make suggestions, but whilst the Game Master is most definitely not competing with the player, she is making the game and world challenging for the player and his character. Pitcrawler is both a traditional fantasy roleplaying game and not a traditional fantasy roleplaying game. There is hero who will have adventures and may even go on a great quest (or just a little one), and may delve into ‘Pits’ as it calls dungeons. However, there is no given world or world lore in the Pitcrawler. It is presumed to be over-the-top grim fantasy, but one which eschews traditional ‘Old School’ elements with its traditional treatment of females and races, alignments, and its play styles. The only background element that will be consistent from one play through to another is the world has Wizards who are powerful magicians capable of changing the world around them, not always to the benefit of the inhabitants. Wizards are also very rich and their tombs are often worth plundering. Wizards are sufficiently powerful that as a group they could destroy a minor god and even face down a major one!

Pitcrawler does not just eschew traditional ‘Old School’. It goes further in describing itself as having “Progressive Lefty Values”. And to be clear, this is not a bad thing either. After all, there are plenty of roleplaying games, almost all of them under the ‘Old School’ banner which do have those traditional elements if you want them. Pitcrawler is simply a roleplaying game that offers a different perspective and greatly widens—even if only by one roleplaying game versus hundreds of traditional roleplaying games—the choice for the player who wants to play what is a self-confessed progressive fantasy roleplaying game.

A Player Character in Pitcrawler is an Adventurer. An Adventurer is not a Wizard as Wizards are evil and an Adventurer cannot perform magic (though he can use artefacts). An Adventurer has five qualities. These are Face, Feet, Fingers, Fists, and Heart. Each is rated by a die type, from a four-sided die to a twelve-sided die. The die type attached to each quality is determined randomly. He starts play with seven Hit Points, a Background, three areas of Expertise, a Companion, and some equipment. The Backgrounds, which indicate what the Adventurer did before he came a Pitcrawler, include Animal Farmer, Bookkeeper, Entertainer, Gambler, Midwife, Tax Collector, and more. Each Background provides two items of equipment and two areas of Expertise, one of which is mandatory, the other the player can choose. A third s determined randomly. The Background also provides some equipment, two other items are determined randomly, and the player choses a weapon. What is not on the character is anything akin to Intellect, Perception, and Defence. This is because the Adventurer is as intelligent as his player; instead of rolling for Perception, the player is expected to ask questions and the Game Master is expected to answer them honestly; and Pitcrawler is a player-facing roleplaying game. That is, he is the only one rolling dice whereas the Game Master will not—except for random chance or contests between NPCs.

To create an Adventurer, a player rolls for his Qualities, Background, extra Expertise, and selects a Companion. The Companion assists with particular types of tests and can perform a particular ability once per scenario. For example, the Priest can assist with tests of willpower and pass a Complicated Heart test for the Adventurer once per scenario. The player should name the Companion and explain why the Companion is accompanying the Adventurer. The process is quick and easy, which makes it good if an Adventurer dies. If he does, one of the features of Pitcrawler is legacies in which the new Adventurer is somehow related or linked to the one that died and will gain a benefit as a result.

Pallavi Iapheth
Level: 1
Face d10 Feet d12 Fingers d8 Fists d6 Heart d4
Hit Point: 7
Background: Tax Collector
Expertise: Accounting, Haggling, Gambling
Items: Book, fake jewels, measuring tape, weighing scales, pistol
Companion: Bruiser (Bob)

To have him undertake an action, the Adventurer’s player rolls an appropriate quality die and aims to equal to or higher than a Difficulty set by the Game Master. The Difficulty ranges from three or Simple to eighteen or Inconceivable. When a quality die is rolled, it can explode, which means that it is possible for the Adventurer to overcome a challenge even if the die type is low. In addition, the difficulty of the test can be lowered one step if the Adventurer has a relevant Expertise, a Useful item, or is Assisted by a Companion or NPC willing to help. A critical success, equal to double the number needed to succeed, grants the Adventurer an extra reward. Failure can lead to loss of Hit Points and/or a consequence which will send the scenario in a different direction.

If failure is likely, the Adventurer can instead ‘Put his heart Into It’ and his player roll the Heart quality die and add it to the total. If the roll is a failure, it is counted as a critical failure. One clever mechanic is that of ‘Thumbs’, which apes the keeping of the thumb on a previous page in a solo adventure book as the player explores the story on another. In effect, this allows the player to turn back the clock in the scenario to a reset point and there make a different choice. A player can have up to five Thumbs depending upon the difficulty of the play.

As with other player-facing roleplaying games, in combat, a player will be rolling to have his Adventurer avoid damage. It can be kept as simple as that, but it can be made more complex and detailed with the rules for advanced fights. These add more detail to opponents, allows for multiple opponents, range, the Adventurer or the enemy gaining the upper hand (whether through preparation, observation, or research), more detailed Companion involvement, and so on. The added complexity has its advantages in work, providing more mini-prompts with which to narrate the combat, but does slow game play down comparatively.

Beyond the simplicity of the rules, there is advice for the Game Master on easing the player into his first scenario and onto the next, as well as creating scenarios. These are effectively outlines or prompts that provide a foundation from which she can improvise from, consisting of a concept, objective, antagonist, location, complication, factions, and twists along with a hook that the Game Master can use to bait the Adventurer. The setting for Pitcrawler is described in broad detail—Wizards rule everything, dangers are everywhere and there are rewards to be won; and no thinking creature inherently evil, but that does not mean that they are necessarily good; and whilst there are a lot of gods, they are not necessarily going to be helpful. Particular attention is paid to the nature of Wizards, that they are ambitious, respect other Wizards only, are otherworldly and nerdy, and are egotistical. This is accompanied by a quick guide to creating a Wizard.

Two thirds of Pitcrawler consists of ten appendices. Some of these support Adventurer creation, but others provide lists of equipment, magic potions, and magic items to buy (the Adventurer can buy one of each of the magic potions and magic items between scenarios). The ‘Tome of Foes’ gives lots of suggested foes, ready to throw into the path of the Adventurer, whilst ‘Iconic Wizards’ describes some twenty-five different Wizards. These include An’Nimat the Dancer who is fascinated with music and sound and uses spells to make others move to the music including everyone in her domain the new moon; Bombatel the War Wizard, who resides in a cratered and battered domain, and is often hired by other Wizards to fight for them; Malsain the Rotmonger, who studies decay, disease, and entropy from her domain mired in slime and plague, and is shunned by other Wizards as a consequence; and Salvia the Chef, so enamoured of good food and the artistry of cooking, that he gave up his studies and made his mansion into a bistro, using magic to develop new ingredients, but not actually cook with. This is accompanied by ‘A Pitcrawler’s Progress’, a complete ten-part campaign, which takes the Adventurer from saving someone important to him in a fishing town that is being attacked by leviathan to delving into tombs, climbing mage towers, and more as he chases down The Sunless, a cult dedicated to awakening its dead god of darkness. Each of the parts has been opened up beyond simple prompts, but the structure does not limit the Game Master or the player in developing the world how they want in play, working from the prompts that the individual scenarios give. What is made clear is that ‘A Pitcrawler’s Progress’ is not a default setting for the roleplaying game, but something to define during play. Overall, ‘A Pitcrawler’s Progress’ provides the Game Master and player all that they need to get playing bar their creativity.

Unfortunately, there is not much in the way of pits or crawling in Pitcrawler. Despite all of its efforts to create a roleplaying game that treats a traditional roleplaying game style and concept in a non-traditional fashion, it seems odd that it does not talk about how to create and play dungeons in Pitcrawler. Given how much this is part of the traditional play that Pitcrawler is emulating, it is a major omission. The other is that for a roleplaying game that works from prompts and wants to push the imagination of both Game Master and player, it seems short of smaller, more general tables to help with that.

Physically, Pitcrawler is well presented. It is an easy read and the artwork constantly echoes the look of the Fighting Fantasy series.

Pitcrawler is different. It brings storytelling elements to Old School Renaissance play without any of its assumptions or traditions and what that means is greater flexibility in tone, style, and nature of the world that the Game Master and player will work together to create and the Adventurer will explore. Some of the elements are not as developed as they should have been, such as ‘pits’, perhaps opening up the possibility of a pit companion to this main rulebook. Ultimately, Pitcrawler opens up classic fantasy roleplaying to players and Game Master who would normally avoid it and allows them to make it their own together. The combination of a lack of assumed lore with it being a one-on-one roleplaying game also makes it easier to get a group—or pair—together and start playing.

Age of Athena II

It is an age of chaos. The once mighty city-states of Greece have become isolated refuges, sanctuaries against the monsters and creatures and bandits and undead that roam beyond their walls, preying upon the weak and ravaging the land. In response, the people cry out for help and beseech the gods of Olympus. Yet only one of their number hears their cries and only a handful of men and women answers her appeal for heroes. She is Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategic war, handicraft, and the city, the daughter of Zeus who sprang from his head fully formed. They are the Demigods, born of divine and mortal parentage and so granted some of the gifts of the gods and they stand fast, ready to answer the hollering for help, the need to fight the legendary monsters of the age, to protect the innocent and the helpless, and to seek out adventure. This is the set-up for Warriors of Athena, a skirmish scale miniatures wargame from Osprey Games. Written by the designer of the highly regarded Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City, it is a game in which a player creates a Warband, consisting of a Hero and several Companions, the number ranging between one and seven (depending upon the number of players, the more players, the fewer the number of Companions in a Warband), and takes them on quests set by Athena. What is notable about Warriors of Athena is that it is not designed to be adversarial, that is, one player or more players playing against each other as is traditional in miniature wargames. Instead, it can be played in one of four modes. First, it can be played in Solo mode against the game itself, with the player controlling his miniatures and the actions of the monsters and other threats as well as when random events taking place being determined by the rules. Second, it can be played co-operatively, with two or more players and their Heroes and Warbands working together to complete a quest. Third, it can be played with an Oracle. This is another player who will control the actions and movement of any threats as a referee. Fourth, the Oracle not only controls the actions and movement of any threats as normal, but also runs scenes in between which do not take place on the table of terrain where all the action happens. Instead, they are run in the theatre of the mind in the same way that a roleplaying game would be run. In the latter mode, Warriors of Athena develops one of the particular aspects of skirmish level miniatures wargaming, which is the strong identification that a player will develop with the members of his Warband. The Hero and his Companions will grow and change as result of their successfully fulfilling Quests and so will a player’s investment in them.

At the core of the game are two books, both needed to play. Warriors of Athena: Heroes gives the core rules for the game, including how to create a Warband consisting of the Hero and his Companions, running combats, and handling campaigns and rewards. Warriors of Athena: Quests explains how to create and run Quests, and provides a bestiary of threats and four ready-to-play multi-scenario campaigns.  In addition to the rules, a player requires miniatures, both to represent his Warband and monsters and creatures, some terrain and buildings such as temples, a pack of ordinary playing cards, a twenty-sided die, and a play area, roughly thirty inches square. Warriors of Athena can be played using any scale miniatures and miniatures from any manufacturer (though North Star Military Figures does manufacture a range of miniatures to support the rules). The introduction explains all of this and a bit more, gently pushing players to play the game with an Oracle to the full effect, whilst still acknowledging that playing Age of Athena as a straightforward wargame without the roleplaying element is perfectly fine too.

Each Quest follows the same format. This includes a summary that gives an overview and lays out what the Heroes are attempting to do, how many scenes there are, a list of the miniatures required and set-up needed, a short narrative passage to be read out by the Oracle, actions that the Heroes can take before the scenario starts, special rules involved, the Challenge Level that be adjusted to make the scenario more difficult, the rewards to be gained if the Heroes are successful, and a narrative in the epilogue if the Heroes are successful. There are also scenes that the Oracle can insert into the scenario to enhance the narrative elements of play. These are of course optional, much more like those in a roleplaying game, and do not actually require the miniatures. The special rules typically involve seeding the playing area with clue markers and then the possible results that can be drawn when a hero moves adjacent and can examine them.

The quests open with ‘The Golden Hives’, designed for beginning Heroes. It introduces them and their players to Athena when she asks the former to exact her revenge against a trio of murderous cyclops, who have killed their father and eaten the honey that would have been paid as tribute to the gods of Olympus. The Heroes will fight through a field of aggressive mythic bees and then face the trio of cyclops. If they find a bloodied stone axe in the first scenario, this can be carried over into the second and will give the hero wielding it an advantage against the cyclops as it was the one they used to kill their father. This adds a nice narrative element to the paythrough of ‘The Golden Hives’, but there is only a small chance of this happening. So, the Oracle might want to increase the chance of the Heroes finding the weapon to enhance the narrative—and if they want to carry on to the next scenarios, perhaps provide it with a permanent ability. If the Heroes fail the first time, the quest allows for a second attempt—as do the other quests—though the Heroes will only earn a limited amount of Experience Points.

In the second quest, ‘The Imprisoned Oceanid’, the Heroes are directed to rescue an Oceanid who has been kidnapped by an evil cult called the Sons of Poseidon. Over the course of three scenarios, the Heroes will fight their way up a steep cliff under a hail of arrows from the cult’s archers and into the flooding caves where is being kept prisoner. The Heroes discover a defiled and pillaged temple dedicated to their patron, Athena, in the third quest, ‘The Rampage’, and chase down the group of marauding centaurs and satyrs. The number of scenarios is increased from three to four and which of the centaur ringleaders appear in which scenario is randomly determined. Those that do not appear in the first three, will all appear in the fourth and final part. The Heroes will chase the marauders over rocky hills, encountering signs of their activity as they cut a swathe of bloody horror across the countryside, ultimately to face the sorceress they serve, deep in the forest, at night, at the witching hour. There a chance that Ares, the God of War, will be attracted to the series of running battles in this quest and the Heroes will have to fight him! The last quest, ‘Tartarus Unbound’, is designed for experienced Heroes. The number of scenarios increases to five and takes the Heroes to the city of Aketra, recently split asunder in anger by the god, Hades, because its king refused honour after the death of his wife. As the city burns, a dragon has slithered up out of the ground and hatched a clutch of eggs and if neither of these are destroyed, it does not bode well for the nearby cities. The Heroes have to fight their way into the city, across a narrow bridge, and through its burning ruins, facing undead along the way (including the king who rejected Hades), to finally face-off against a fire-breathing dragon across building divided by streets flowing with lava! It is a great climatic scene for the end battle and if they do manage to defeat the dragon, the Heroes will be truly worthy of that title.

The last third of Warriors of Athena: Quests consists of advice and content supporting the player (or Oracle) who wants to create his own Quests. This breaks down the elements of a quest and a scenario, examining them in turn in terms of design rather than play. In turn, it discusses the goal of the quest and its structure, scenarios and their structure, but it also talks about the role of recurring characters, how to create an event table, design skill and stat rolls, and more. For the group that wants them, it discusses how to design and create scenes too. The advice is good and worth reading through even if the players have experience of writing content for games like this. Certainly, it will help if they have experience with roleplaying games, but is not wholly necessary.

Mechanically, the support includes a bestiary that covers animals, uncivilised races, undead, gods and goddesses, and monsters. So, boars and bulls, Amazons and Satyrs, skeletal archers and champions, Apollo and Artemis, and Gorgons and Minotaurs. The bestiary includes a list of creature traits too. The book comes to a close with a reference sheet for use during play.

Physically, Warriors of Athena: Quests is much like Warriors of Athena: Heroes. It is an easy read, but there are relatively few shots of the game being played, that is, photographs of miniatures on the table, in the book, in comparison to normal artwork. That artwork is excellent though, often depicting scenes of action and combat that you would want to see enacted on the table. The four quests are well written and easy to understand.

Of course, Warriors of Athena: Quests is only half of Warriors of Athena, that half being the rules in Warriors of Athena: Heroes. If the latter tells you how to play, then Warriors of Athena: Quests shows you not only how to play, but also how to design what you play. Each of the four quests is a mini-campaign in itself, but they are intended to be played in order, the Heroes gaining in experience to face ever tougher foe and more challenging situations. This is more like a roleplaying game than a traditional wargame—even a skirmish one. Whilst the optional addition of scenes and narrative also make the wargame much more like a roleplaying game, even if they are ignored, Warriors of Athena still feels like a roleplaying game in its focus upon individual characters, their growth from scenario to scenario, and in the multi-part structure of the quests. In fact, it would actually be possible to run the quests in Warriors of Athena: Quests without the miniatures as the theatre of the mind of a roleplaying game. That though, is not the point of Warriors of Athena. The point of Warriors of Athena is to present a skirmish wargame with roleplaying elements set in an age of Greek myth and legend when the heroes can become great warriors and figures of the age, and this it does well with rules and content that support both styles of play—wargaming with roleplaying or roleplaying with wargaming.

Friday Fantasy: Brought to Light

Brought to Light enables you to visit the great city of Eversink not once, but four times. The city stands at the mouth of the Serpentine River where it flows into Bay of Coins, cut through by canals crossed over by numerous bridges from one plaza to another, filled with flotillas of boats and gondolas, spoiled by outpourings of human and other waste waiting to be flushed out to sea, all to the sound of merchants, high and low, hawking their wares, and the chants of the priests. This as its cellars and basements continue to sink into the mire, despite the best efforts of the engineers of The Guild of Architects and Canal-Watchers. Eversink is a city of feuds and rivalries and secrets, some secrets hidden in the rooms of buildings swallowed by the swamp upon which the city stands and a city of laws and traditions so complex and convoluted that no city official can expect to remember them all. The only crime that agreed upon and widely known is that of Sorcery, for hand-in-hand with Sorcery comes Corruption, and if a Sorcerer chooses not to internalise it, he must instead externalise it and that spiritually scars the surrounding terrain and brings the attention of the Inquisitors for it scars the blessings of the city’s patron goddess, Denari—and that may be Eversink’s ultimate secret. This is the setting for Swords of the Serpentine, the swords and sorcery roleplaying game of daring heroism, sly politics, daring thievery, incriminating secrets, feuding houses of the nobility, rampant corruption, and bloody savagery, set in a fantasy city full of skulduggery and death, that uses the GUMSHOE System and is published by Pelgrane Press.

It is also the setting for Brought to Light, an anthology of one-shot scenarios for Swords of the Serpentine. All four were originally run as demonstration scenarios at Gen Con and all four run the gamut of the roleplaying game’s tiers of play, from Fledgling to Sovereign. Which means that they showcase a range of Player Character types, campaign set-ups, and power levels in the setting of Eversink. Each scenario is structured the same way. This includes its adventure premise, setting, tone and hints for running the game—including inspirations, plot summary with a plot map, a breakdown of both the primary adversaries and the heroes, and how to start the scenario. This is followed by map of the scenario’s various scenes and the scenes themselves, the scenes further broken down skill by skill and how they apply and what the Player Characters will learn and lastly six pre-generated Player Characters specific to the scenario. Each scenario also includes a handout.

The anthology opens with ‘Ragamuffins’. Written for the Fledgling tier, it casts the Player Characters as urchins surviving as best they can on the streets of Eversink. Opening in exciting fashion with a rooftop chase, the Urchins find their home in Sag Harbour, the worst district in the city, has been robbed! This includes a precious MacGuffin that makes them feel safe in their hovel. The culprits are their regular bullies and the Urchins have to track down both and what the pair has done with the item, which ultimately leads to a horrible conspiracy underground. ‘Ragamuffins’ mixes grime and children’s own adventure in engaging fashion.

‘Murder Most Foul!’ takes the classic country murder mystery and gives it an Eversink twist, making it a locked-room—or rather locked-mansion—mystery. Master Pietro Contrari is the most famous and most successful freelance detective in the history of Eversink, having solved over nine hundred murders in thirty-five year career! He is holding a sixtieth birthday party at his mansion and the Player Characters’ patrons want to know the secret of Contrari’s success and so have got them invitations. The Player Characters are, of course, no slouches when it comes to investigations, and of course, there will be murder. Which sounds like a fantasy version of 1976’s Murder by Death. So, there is a ball at which everyone can circulate, a murder that Master Pietro Contrari is bound to solve, and a whole mansion to explore and investigate. This is a mansion crawl in which three investigations are running in parallel—one that of Contrari into the death, the second of the Player Characters into the death, and the third of the Player Characters into Contrari himself—with the first being separate from each. The scenario even ends with a, “But tell me inspector, what I don’t understand is…” scene in which the Player Characters get to turn it back on the master detective. This is an entertaining pastiche of all the genre clichés.

‘Smuggler’s End’ is another classic murder mystery style investigation, but here the Player Characters are members of the City Watch instructed by a very rare letter from the Triskadane, the city’s highly secret, anonymous rulers, to solve the death. The body is that of nobleman with a rakish and criminally connected reputation, now dressed in rags and seemly dumped on the streets of Sag Harbour with a knife in his back. How did the victim get there and who killed him? Add into the mix a sister whose haughty manner is going to make the players hate her, let alone their characters, who wants the body back for burial and will get it back in two days, and what you have is classic police style procedural in which justice crashes into city politics.

Politics rears its ugly head again in the fourth and final scenario in the anthology. ‘Takedown’ switches the Tier up to Sovereign and has the Player Characters take command of their greater resources rather than go toe-to-toe in direct combat—whether that is physical, verbal, or sorcerous—as they are constantly harried and harassed by their enemies. Again, the Player Characters are instructed by Triskadane, the city’s highly secret, anonymous rulers, to investigate and act against Judge Lorenzo Spina, Lord High Magistrate of Eversink—one of the most power, visible figures in the city. As creepily conveyed by a child, the Triskadane has foreseen that he poses a severe threat to the city. The scenario does not have a structure so much as it considers what actions the Player Characters might take and how their various Investigative and General abilities can be applied to the investigation, what they will learn in the process, and how Spina is likely to retaliate once he becomes aware of their activities. So, bar the initial one, there are no other scenes and the investigation and play process will be much more open. Tonally, ‘Takedown’ is much darker than the other scenarios and it probably the one on its own which could be expanded from a direct four hour affair into a mini-campaign. It is effectively a freeform played at the table and so requires greater input by the Game Master.

Physically, Brought to Light is very well laid out, nicely illustrated, and the individual organisation of the scenarios eases the Game Master’s job. However, as much as their portraits impart a feel for the pre-generated Player Characters, none of them have any ready background that is accessible to the players. Each does have some background—it is given in the breakdown of the heroes at the start of each scenario. So, whilst useful for the Game Master, she has to find a way to impart that to the players of these characters. Another issue is the lack of maps. All of the scenarios are to be run theatre of the mind, but in some cases, such as the mansion in ‘Murder Most Foul!’, map could have been useful given its location-based play.

The problem with Brought to Light is that not that it is a collection of bad scenarios; quite the contrary. These are all good, entertaining scenarios. Rather that it consists of one-shots, convention scenarios, and whilst they can used as the basis or starting points for ongoing campaigns, they are not easy to add to a campaign. Which ultimately means that Brought to Light is not as flexible as a more general anthology of scenarios might be. Nevertheless, Brought to Light is a good showcase for Swords of the Serpentine, capturing not just some of its possible set-ups, but also the feel and flavour of Eversink, its grottiness and grandeur, corruption and capriciousness, power and pettiness, and more.

Magazine Madness 47: Senet Issue 19

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

—oOo—

Senet is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases. Senet is also one of the very few magazines about games to actually be available for sale on the high street.

Having reached its fifth anniversary with Senet Issue 18, Senet Issue 19 goes one better by being bigger. It increases in length by a fifth from seventy-two pages to eighty-eight. Which means more previews and reviews, plus new articles, all along the usual mix of interviews, examinations of themes and mechanisms, and looks at game design and game culture. Consequently, it feels a little thicker and sturdier in the hands and provides a wider look at the hobby. Published in the summer of 2025, much of Senet Issue 19 adheres to its tried and tested format. Thus it opens with ‘Behold’, highlighting some of the then forthcoming games with a preview and a hint or two of what to expect. The most intriguing of the titles previewed here include Spokes, a game about bicycle racing in a velodrome that involves placing vibrantly coloured literal spokes of bicycles; Night Soil, about the nightly collection and disposal of ordure in Tudor London; and Habemus Papam, a timely title in which the players are electors of the Roman Curia, directed to elect a new Pope, but which they themselves are not candidates for the papal throne.

The first of the new additions in Senet Issue 19 is ‘Across the Board’. This will be ongoing series in which the magazine talks to the hobby’s ‘movers and dice-shakers’. For the inaugural article, Ruth Haigh of The Treehouse Board Game Café in Sheffield is interviewed. Given the rise of the board game café in the past decade, it seems wholly appropriate that the magazine actually talk to someone who runs one to find out why and what life is like running one in comparison to a café without board games. It is an engaging interview and it will be interesting to see who the magazine talks to in future issues. However, it does return to the tried and tested with designer Tristian Hall’s ‘For Love of the Game’. This time, it is the ‘Designer’s day off’, and here he stretches an earlier comment of his that inspiration can come from anywhere into a whole column by telling you exactly where. Essentially, a guide to what the designer does when not working on board games that ends with the question, “So, what will you discover on your next designer’s day off?”, to which the answer is, “Hopefully not another waste of time and effort like this” as the long running column reaches its nadir. The only plus to this entry in the magazine is that it shows how very good the rest of the issue, especially with the expanded page count, actually is. Sadly, whilst the extra page count does what it can to obscure ‘For Love of the Game’, it has not be used to expand ‘Points’, the regular letter column in the magazine. The letters here wonder how game modifications come about—as seen through the eyes of children, raise an issue with the use of the word ‘shame’ in the title of magazine’s end column, ‘Shelf of Shame’, and suggests some books about board games to read. It is a pity that there are not more letters because there are some interesting ideas raised here, certainly worth discussing, and the latter about books about board games certainly highlights an area that the magazine is not covering.

Every issue consists of two interviews, one with an artist and one with a designer, plus an article about a theme in games and an article about a mechanic in games, and of course, Senet Issue 19 is no exception. In ‘The Explorer’, Dan Jolin interviews the designer of his favourite game, Scythe, and publisher of the highly popular Wingspan, Jamey Stegmaier. The title of the interview is reference to his then latest design, Vantage, the open-world board game inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It takes him from his first steps into gaming from Catan to Agricola and beyond. In particular, the interview highlights the quality of the components in Stegmaier games and how some of the design changes came about when working with Jakub Rozalksi whose artwork inspired the look at design of Scythe. It is a good interview, as is Alexandra Sonechkina’s one with Sandara Tang. In ‘A Cute Above’, the reader gets to enjoy her ‘cosy-cute’ fantasy artwork as seen in Flamecraft, Critter Kitchen, and Tea Witches. The artwork is genuinely that and will be enjoyed by anyone who also likes dragons. Sandara guides through some of her pieces that have a wonderful storybook quality to them.

In ‘The Explorer’, Dan Jolin interviews the designer of his favourite game, Scythe, and publisher of the highly popular Wingspan, Jamey Stegmaier. The title of the interview is reference to his then latest design, Vantage, the open-world board game inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It takes him from his first steps into gaming from Catan to Agricola and beyond. In particular, the interview highlights the quality of the components in Stegmaier and how some of the design changes came about when working with Jakub Rozalksi whose artwork inspired the look at design of Scythe. It is a good interview, as is Alexandra Sonechkina’s one with Sandara Tang. In ‘A Cute Above’, the reader gets to enjoy her ‘cosy-cute’ fantasy artwork as seen in Flamecraft, Critter Kitchen, and Tea Witches. The artwork is genuinely that and will be enjoyed by anyone who also likes dragons. Sandara guides through some of her pieces that have a wonderful storybook quality to them.

‘Risky Business’ by Dan Thurot explores the ‘push-your-luck’ mechanism in board games, as typified by the recent Flip 7. The mechanism—and the article looks at several of them, including dice rolling, card-flipping, tile-laying, tower-stacking (a la Jenga), and even pig-throwing (a la Pass the Pigs)—has a problem in its association with gambling, but the honestly, there plenty of games that use this mechanism that are not Blackjack or Poker. All these games do combine the thrill of taking a chance which can be sweetened or soured by the result. Balanced against this the need to ascertain which result is more likely. From the simplicity of a game like Flip 7 the article looks at surprisingly more complex games like Quacks of Quedlinburg or in the Psychedelic wargame, Wonderland’s War. What is made clear throughout by talking to designers is that these games need balancing and adjustment to get right as well as the fact that there is more to them than most people think.

The theme in the issue is travel and holidays as Tim Clare puts us in ‘Holiday Mode’. The theme goes all the way back to the seventeenth century and continues to be popular today, with designs such as Globetrotting and Let’s Go! To Japan. Underlying many designs with this theme, is the wish fulfilment of visiting faraway places, that is, going on holiday to places you want to go to, but cannot. In other cases, like Tokaido—inspired by Utagawa Hiroshige’s The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido series—it is the journey that matters, not the speed with which it completed. The article balances these great journeys with five pocket-sized games that are both holiday themed and could be taken on holiday.

The other major addition to Senet Issue 19 is ‘The Classic’ which looks at a classic board game in the hobby’s hall of fame each issue. For the first entry in the series, the board game in question is, of course, Catan. It opens with the sad news that many consider the game to be past its sell by date, too old, a cliché even… Matt Thrower’s assessment does not shy away from comments made by its detractors and by the perceived wisdom, but puts up a sturdy defence of the game, pointing out its achievements over the last thirty years—millions of copies sold in forty languages, awards won including the Spiel des Jahres, and above all, popularising the hobby. It will be interesting to see what titles will be considered classics in future issues.

Senet’s reviews section, ‘Unboxed’ includes a look at The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game, highly regarded for the strong inclusion of its theme, whilst Power Vacuum, a game of household appliances living in a dictatorship, which is also a trick-taking game is also praised. The Senet’s Top Choice for the issue is Finspan, a piscine reimaging of the popular Wingspan. Unfortunately, Paranoia: The Uncooperative Board Game appears to suffer too much from being like the roleplaying game it is based upon, so it is best enjoyed fans of the roleplaying game. The selection is not quite as wide as in previous issues, the titles being reviewed all being hobby games than family or party games. However, there are more of them in keeping with the increased page count.

As per usual, the last two columns in Senet Issue 19 are ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. ‘From bored to board: falling for game night’ by John DeQuadros which traces his path from scepticism about board games to acceptance and finally proponent of the hobby as space for socialising. It is a rather engaging piece that highlights the participation rather than the winning—and sometimes the play itself. Lastly, the streamer and content creator, Beneeta Kaur pulls a game from her ‘Shelf of Shame’. The title is Firenze, bought in 2019 and ignored until now. She discovers a game that she thoroughly enjoys and regrets having ignored it until now, all due to the dangers of being distracted.

Physically, Senet Issue 19 is as good as you expect. It is well written and a pleasing read. The issue is also good in itself, the increased page enabling wider coverage of the board games hobby. The new article series are nice additions and the extra reviews are more than welcome, and it will be good to see the new format bed in with future issues.

[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 XLII] Hypergraphia Issue o

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. Of course, not all fanzines are dedicated to classic fantasy roleplaying games.

Hypergraphia Issue o was published in August, 2017 for release the following October at NecronomiCon Providence 2017. It takes its name from the rare behavioural condition in which the sufferer has the compulsive urge to write or draw, often resulting in voluminous amounts of text or detailed illustrations. However, the fanzine does not suffer from the effects of the latter, since it only runs to thirty-two pages in length. In-keeping with the nature of NecronomiCon Providence: The International Conference and Festival of Weird Fiction, Art, and Academia, a biennial convention and academic conference held in Providence, Rhode Island dedicated to the life and works of H. P. Lovecraft and other creators of weird fiction, film, and art, the contents of the fanzine are dedicated to Lovecraftian investigative horror. Mechanically, all of the content is written for Cthulhu Dark, the rules light roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror. What this means that all of the content is readily adaptable to the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror (or just horror) of the Game Master’s choice.

The issue opens with ‘Night Business – Three scenario hooks for Cthulhu Dark’s London 1851 setting’ by Charles Gerard. They include ‘Link-Boys’ in which it rumoured that the Link-Boys that once lit the way home for pedestrians on the streets of London have retreated from the gaslit streets into the maze of alleyways and other dark routes, where razor-teethed , some hunt the unwary. ‘Rat-Catchers’ asks how far will the suppliers for the rat-baiting pits go in providing tougher creatures and what happens when the rats push back? Lastly, in ‘Resurrectionists’, the cadaver gangs have returned to London to fulfil a shortage of bodies for the surgeons and the anatomists. Where have the bodies of the dead of the workhouses gone and who is disinterring the dead now? Overall, nicely detailed ideas that the Game Master can develop into some further.

In between, Ed Possing’s ‘Unwanted Visitor’ is a short piece of fiction that hints at the dread of being alone in the cabin in the woods, as ‘Cleaning Up the Supernatural – An investigator background for any game system’ from Tyler Hudak explores the role of the janitor or garbage collector in horror games. He notes that theirs is a ubiquitous and unnoticed presence, collecting rubbish, raking over the trash, and having access to caustic chemicals and disposal systems. There are no game stats, but it suggests that stealth and hiding skills are appropriate along with lower social skills and a lower social status given the nature of the job. It is perhaps slightly too basic a description to really work from, but the article is accompanied by a trio scenario hooks and a description of ‘The Order of Janus’, originally founded in Ancient Rome to clean up evidence of activity. In the modern day, the Janus Corporation performs crime scene clean-up for law enforcement around the world. It is an interesting idea and would be fascinating to see this developed further with some actual scenarios and Occupational write-up.

There is more support for the period with Max Mahaffa’s ‘Ashes in the Dark – A scenario hook for Cthulhu Dark’s London 1851 setting’. It highlights the horrors of being a chimney sweep in the Victorian era, whilst also presenting a horror they could encounter at 50 Berkeley Square, infamously described as, ‘the most haunted house in London’. Essentially, there is something nasty in the chimneys of the townhouse, and the sweeps are noticing how few boys go in and come out again. What if the Player Characters are given the task of sweeping the townhouse’s twisted, cramped chimneys? Playing on claustrophobia, it includes lists of key words to describe the location, physical feelings, and the monster itself.

Somewhere on the road to Kingsport stands ‘The Green Bough Inn – A setting for any game system’ by Anthony Lee-Dudley. The dark and sombre building is as unwelcoming as the family that run it. The accompanying adventure seeds suggest that the family leads a cult in the nearby woods, that have something growing in the attic, and so on. In comparison to the hooks presented elsewhere in the issue, these are threadbare and will need no little development to be fully useful.

Ian MacLean explores the mysteries and legends of Canada in ‘Occultarum Borealis’. In particular, the lost village of Hochelaga. The St. Lawrence Iroquoian village was described by French explorer Jacques Cartier in October, 1535, in some detail as being well-defended, organised, and home to two thousand indigenous peoples. However, when Samuel de Champlain, ‘the father of New France’, visited the area seventy years later, it was gone. Although suggestions are given as to what actually happed—war, emigration, or disease—the article suggests that the Player Characters could be European visitors or even other locals looking to trade, but they could also be from rival tribes wanting to war on the village of Hochelaga. Further, he suggests Mythos involvement in the form of Iroquoian legends of the Flying Head, said to ride on howling winds, ripping its victims apart with bloodied claws. Could this be Nyarlathotep as the Haunter of the Dark. Alternatives include suggestions which could be the ‘Little People’ or the ‘White Buffalo’ that seek the surface to writhe and ravage the lands that could be Cthonians. Another option could be Mi-Go interference given European interest in mining rights. This is one of the more detailed articles in the fanzine and gives a lot of suggestions for the Game Master to work with, no matter which roleplaying game she is using.

‘Fragments of Fears and Phobias – Coulrophobia: Fear of Clowns’ by Sean Murphy examines the history of clowns, clowning, and the phobia some have of them. It notes that their portrayal in the media as monsters preying on children and adults alike, combined with their not quite human appearance has constantly pushed children’s happy association with clowns into fear and loathing. It is a solid overview of what appears to be a relatively new phobia and it would be interesting to see other phobias treated in the same way. Sadly, there are no hooks as there are in other articles in the fanzine.

Penultimately, Edwin Nagy takes the reader to the venue for NecronomiCon Providence, more recently seen in The Shadow Over Providence. In ‘Horror at the Biltmore’, he describes the planned multi-table Call of Cthulhu scenario at NecronomiCon Providence 2017 in which it possible for players to buy elements such as a revolver, or spell or if they are feeling nasty, a monster to add to the playthrough, and the monies going to charity. This sounds a lot of fun and a future issue of the fanzine should definitely tell what happened.

Lastly, ‘Off the Rails’ by Brian Murphy explores what happens when the players take their Investigators and gave them do something entirely unexpected, even also most counter to the scenario being played. Or at least, what happens when the Investigators decided to settle down in the Dreamlands with a lot of money in their playthrough of The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man. His solution is to escalate events to the point where the Investigators were turned into pariahs and driven from the city which had burned down after it was attacked by the Black Ship owned by the Men of Leng which the Investigators had sold. It is thoroughly apocalyptic and quite, quite entertaining.

Physically, Hypergraphia Issue o is clean, tidy, and simply laid out. The artwork is a mixture of photographs and publicly available images and well chosen.

Hypergraphia Issue o is a good mix of background and suggested ideas for play. All of it needs development to one degree or another, in order to make it playable. Otherwise this is an engaging read that will work for almost horror roleplaying game.

[Fanzine Focus XLII] The Beholder Issue 7

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

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. As new fanzines have appeared, there has been an interest in the fanzines of the past, and as that interest has grown, they have become highly collectible, and consequently more difficult to obtain and write about. However, in writing about them, the reader should be aware that these fanzines were written and published between thirty and forty years ago, typically by roleplayers in their teens and twenties. What this means is that sometimes the language and terminology used reflects this and though the language and terminology is not socially acceptable today, that use should not be held against the authors and publishers unduly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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