[Fanzine Focus XXX] Loviatar No. 1

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

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

Loviatar No. 1 was published in August, 2011. Written and published by Christian Walker, it was not written as a response to the Old School Renaissance, but rather as a means to focus the author’s mind when it comes to running fantasy games. Thus it is not written for any of the then available retroclones, such as Labyrinth Lord or Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay. Instead it is hybrid between Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder, First Edition. Not mechanically, but rather between rules and setting, the author’s campaign being set in the Dungeons & Dragons setting of Forgotten Realms using Pathfinder, First Edition. If that sounds like Loviatar No. 1 is a mongrel of a fanzine, there might be some truth in that, but that is the author’s choice, and anyway, the point of the early gaming fanzines of the nineteen eighties which the modern fanzine revival so heavily draws from, was to present content from the editor’s own campaign world. Which is what the author is doing in the pages of Loviatar No. 1. 

If that sounds like the content of Loviatar No. 1 is not of use, that is not the case. Shorn of the Pathfinder, First Edition stats—which like nearly all Dungeons & Dragons derived content are easily adapted to the retroclone of your choice—the content in Loviatar No. 1 is enjoyably playable and is easily changed to fit any Game Master’s campaign, whether that is again, mechanically, or dramatically. Future issues of the fanzine would shift to being specifically aimed at the Old school Renaissance, although it could be argued that Loviatar No. 1 had a sensibility that leaned in that direction anyway.

Loviatar No. 1 carries the tag, “a zine about tabletop role-playing games”. This is not the case, although oddly the fanzine does carry a number of adverts for roleplaying games, many of them long out of print, even in 2011. They include adverts for The Traveller Adventure from Game Designer’s Workshop, Fantasy Games Unlimited’s Bushido and Aftermath, and Star Frontiers from TSR, Inc. Apart from these oddities, the fanzine focuses entirely on the publisher’s campaign setting and on providing a base of operations for the Player Characters in that campaign. To that end, there is only the one article in the fanzine. ‘At the Corner of River Street and Craft Way’. This details four possible dwellings for his Player Characters in the city of Baldur’s Gate. They include a ‘Small Home with Loft’, ‘Warehouse’, ‘Ground Level Flat’, and ‘Former Tavern with Apartment’. Each is mapped out, fully detailed, including rent, and more. They feel reminiscent of the homes that a player might buy in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which was released the same year as Loviatar No. 1 as well as possessing the sort of sales pitch that an estate agent or landlord might give the prospective purchaser or tenant. However, it is the ‘more’ of the dwelling descriptions where the fanzine comes into its own.

Each of the potential dwellings comes with both history and plot, both of which a Player Character can become involved when not adventuring. Not only that, they pull the Player Character into the community around them and they encourage the player to roleplay and they get the Player Character involved in story. For example, the ‘Small Home with Loft’ was previously home to a drug dealer named Shamus. No-one knows where he is now, but that does not stop the local gang from harassing the new tenant, the Player Character, to find out where he is, even Shamus himself, from turning up on the doorstep. The question is, what does he want, let alone where has he been and why did he leave? Some of the four possible dwellings get more plot than the others. For example, ‘Ground Level Flat’ was previously home to a cleric of Lathander, who used to provide healing to the injured and the sick. Not everyone is aware of this yet, so the local inhabitants will come knocking on the Player Character’s door at all hours with all sorts of illnesses and injuries. This in addition to the neighbours upstairs who are constantly arguing and always settle their biggest disagreements with bouts of lovemaking. How is the Player Character going to deal with his noisy neighbours, let alone the medical cases which come to his door?

In addition, stats are provided for each of the major NPCs associated with each of the four dwellings. These are clearly separate from the fanzine’s descriptive content and whilst written for use for with Pathfinder, First Edition, they are easily adapted or rewritten using the rules system of the Game Master’s choice. It does not even have to be retroclone. The contents of Loviatar No. 1 would work with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as much they would RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha or Symbaroum. It should be noted that the neighbourhood focus of ‘At the Corner of River Street and Craft Way’ feels similar to that of the ‘City League’ setting and series of articles for ‘Pelinore’, the fantasy setting developed by TSR UK in the pages of Imagine magazine.

Physically, Loviatar No. 1 is neat and tidy, and in general, well presented. Artwork is very light, but is fairly heavy in its style, as is the cartography, which reprints a map of Baldur’s Gate and shows the floor plans and neighbourhood of River Street and Craft Way. This does make the floor plans slightly difficult to read with any ease.

Despite containing just the one article, Loviatar No. 1 comes with plenty of plot and roleplaying opportunities, and despite it containing no new monsters, magical items, or spells, it is easy to add to the Game Master’s campaign. Refreshingly different, but still fantasy, suitable for one-on-one sessions with a player and downtime between adventures or urban focused campaigns, Loviatar No. 1 is simple, straightforward, and delightfully serviceable.