[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] The Chaos Crier, Issue #1

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and 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 and Old School Essentials. However, other fanzines serve as a vehicle for direct support from the publisher.

The Chaos Crier: An Aperiodical Zine for Black Sword Hack and Other Swords & Sorcery Games, is like the name suggests, a supplement for Black Sword Hack. This is the adaptation of The Black Hack, designed and published by The Merry Mushmen, to emulate the fantasy tales and style of the Eternal Champion—Elric, Corum, et al, by Michael Moorcock. The Chaos Crier, Issue #0 was published as part of the Kickstarter campaign for the Black Sword Hack, but now, The Merry Mushmen has published a full, proper issue, The Chaos Crier, Issue #1.

Like its forbear, The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 is cramped and dense, very much a packed affair, but unlike its forbear, it has a lot more content—a lot more. It includes new monsters, new backgrounds, new factions, and more, mostly notably nine adventures and a return to the city of Nijmauwrgen, previously introduced in The Chaos Crier, Issue #0. This first proper issue of The Chaos Crier describes itself as “…[A] pocket grimoire to feed your world ending campaign with tons of material.”, and there can be no doubt that it lives up to this.

The issue opens with ‘Alternative Backgrounds’ by Troll Mechanik. This gives new ‘Origins’ that a Game master can add to her campaign or build a campaign around, including ‘Primitive Origin’, ‘Nomadic Origin’, ‘Otherworldly Origin’, ‘Feudal Origin’, and ‘Faerie Origin’. Each comes with tables for where the Player Character was born, their Background, and their Weapons. This is a great addition which kicks off the rules sections throughout the issue. Nobboc’s ‘More Monsters’ includes ‘Angel Faces’, giant bats with human baby heads, the aggressive ‘Red Crows’ with blood-red beaks, and ‘Selenite Renegades’, pariahs from the Flotsam Kingdom who have formed a mercenary company and who have large golden eyes and blue skins covered in chitin, and speak in lisping tones. Entries such as ‘The Thing in the Well’ and ‘Ghouls of the Dream Realms’ add a touch of cosmic horror. ‘The Stars Seer’ is an ‘Otherworldy Entity’ and encounter by Tore Nielsen. They can be summoned from their house on a jagged star to answer a single question, but there is a price to be paid, which could be having to polish the Seer’s claws to a high sheen or the questioner losing his tongue!

Eric Nieudan’s ‘The Dominion of Might’ details a Law-aligned ‘Faction’. This is the island kingdom of Myonne which has united its neighbours under the banner of Law and under the leadership of Queen Joosyën XVII, a Champion of Law who deposed her corrupt brother, has sent her Army of Might to coerce and then if necessary, conquer the nations beyond and share in her vision for peace. It is nicely detailed, from the top down, from Queen Joosyën XVII all the way down to minor nobles and inn keepers, forces that the Player Characters might encounter, and both plots and hooks to get them involved as well as events that can occur whilst they are in Dominion territory. This is a big faction and element that the Game Master can add to her campaign and the combination of hooks and events can really pull the Player Characters into their orbit or just have them as a looming threat in said campaign.

It is complemented—in part—by ‘Follow the Code’ by Lars Huijbregts that suggests ways in which an order, sorority, or secret society might act in different circumstances according to doctrine. Covering large conflicts, small happenstances, and who might be evil. None of which are meant to be logical or make sense, but together the Game Master can use them to create a doctrine for an organisation, which could be The Dominion of Might, but could be other organisations just as easily. Eric Nieudan’s ‘Into the Dream Realms’ adds a whole new dimension and a further dash of Lovecraftian horror with the means for the Player Characters to enter the Dream Realm. How it can be entered or left is discussed and there is a table of possible features—really only the start when it comes to dream realms, but the major change is the replacing of the Player Characters’ Doom Die with a Dream Die. It enables a Player Character to interact with the Dream world mechanically, even allowing him to take control of the dream at a cost of the Dream Die being stepped down in size. The downside is if the Dream Die is depleted, it is replaced by the Player Character’s Doom Die and whatever happens in the Dream World affects his physical body too!

‘The Purple Desert’ by Chris Gardiner is a ‘Location’, which could be another world that has fallen to constant grind of the war between Law and Chaos or it could be a dream world. The Player Characters arrive half-buried in the purple sands in the shadow of the head of an enormous statue, whilst in the sky, three broken moons—sallow pink, wet blue, and frail violet—hang and let their essences pour onto the sands. The Player Characters have to find their way out of this desert and onto their destination world and may encounter a brash NPC who hides a few secrets of her own. The presence of the Player Characters will attract the attention of Rag-Wraiths, that initially have no form, but in fighting the Player Characters will emulate their attributes and eventually try to replace them. ‘The Purple Desert’ is an engagingly otherworldly through place, somewhere in between.

The first of the adventures in The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 is Kobayashi’s ‘Bloody Roots’. After hearing rumours of villages sucked into sinkholes, the Player Characters find themselves and the inn where they are staying also being sucked below the earth. Here they find themselves trapped and potential prisoners of the underground Chthonian Empire and they have to find their way out. It is a quick and dirty affair, easy to prepare and set up. It is supported by a short ‘Faction’ guide to the Chthonian Empire, which gives a few options, plus descriptions of the factions who either want to invade the surface world, ally with the surface world, or remain hidden, and stats for various NPCs and monsters. Together it can be run as a one-off scenario or worked into the Game Master’s campaign. The second adventure is ‘Evakius’ Retreat’ by Andrea Gino, which presents a renegade alchemist whose experiments into transforming living creatures through alchemy have led to several disasters and have driven him out of town to take up refuge in an old salt mine. This is presented in cross section and the adventure is supported with decent hooks that will get the Player Characters to investigate the mine and discover just how much trouble Evakius has got himself into! Nobboc’s ‘The Star Envoy’ is a mini-hexcrawl that sees the Player Characters hunting for a twelve-pointed star which has fallen to earth in a small valley instead of attending a planning strategy meeting with Murligen the Wise. The Player Characters might be hired by Murligen the Wise or Zararazarat the Wicked Mage depending upon whether they align with Law or Chaos. Finding the envoy is not enough though as it has lost possessions which it wants back before it will fully co-operate. It is detailed and should provide several sessions of decent gaming.

The highlight of The Chaos Crier, Issue #0 was ‘The Darkness over Nijmauwrgen’, a description of city-port under the thrall of Cult of Dagon. The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 returns to the city of Nijmauwrgen and again, written by Evelyn Moreaux, it is the highlight of the issue, again. ‘The Sunken Moon’ describes a faction in the city which cultivate ‘Moon Urchins’ imported from another world and milks them for their toxin. This is distilled into an elixir which if given to Deep One Hybrid frees them from the urge to transform and blindly serve Dagon—they are given a choice. Both the forces of ‘The Sunken Moon’ and their leader, ‘Mavara’, are detailed as are their facilities and hooks to get the Player Characters involved in ‘Moonlight over Nijmauwrgen’. This is in addition to not one, but two scenarios set in Nijmauwrgen. In ‘The Sad Ancient One’, the Player Characters must descend into the reef off the city and locate ancient and all but forgotten Deep One matriarch and give her the elixir before the Cult of Dagon realise what they are doing, whilst in ‘The Call of the Nautilid’, they receive a psychic distress call from Marava herself. The Cult of Dagon is taking its revenge and whilst Marava is caught up in a battle of her own, the Player Characters must race to keep her alive. Both are exciting scenarios, if linear, and both enable the Player Characters to get further involved in the events in and around Nijmauwrgen.

The issue comes to a close with two final adventures. In the first, the Player Characters definitely find themselves in the Dream Realm in ‘The Sleeper in the Babbling Citadel’ by Eric Nieudan. It is both a short one-session scenario and a mini-setting that the Player Characters can return to after completing the scenario. The involves them exploring the Crimson Caverns originally dug out by Tunneller Titans and in this dry, dusty world climb to a blizzard enshrouded citadel and free the god within. Which it turns out is a wind god, also known as Ithaqua! Nobboc’s ‘Deep in the Salt Mine’ is the second of these two final adventures, oddly inspired by a RuneQuest adventure that the author can recall the name of. It begins with the Player Characters being enslaved and working out in salt mine. The Player Characters are free to try and escape, instigate a rebellion, and so on, but in the process, they discover dark secrets hidden beyond the mine. These are both decent adventures, with ‘Deep in the Salt Mine’ being suitable as a beginning scenario as it gets all of the the Player Characters together!

Physically, The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 is ably presented. It is busy in places, but the artwork is excellent. The depiction of the Purple Desert in ‘The Purple Desert’ is particularly good.

Every time Reviews from R’lyeh receives a package from The Merry Mushmen, there is the anticipation that what that package contains is going to be good, even very good. The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 is no exception. It is packed with good stuff and all of it playable and easy to add to a Game Master’s campaign. The Black Sword Hack Game Master should definitely have The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 and The Chaos Crier, Issue #0 because the two do complement each other. Perhaps that is the only downside to The Chaos Crier, Issue #1, in that it does need the other issue to really work as well as it can. Overall, The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 provides support for Black Sword Hack that is not only good, but also entertaining.