[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] LOWBORN Issue I

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

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

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

Lowborn Issue I was published in April, 2020. The content begins with a handful of small articles. They include ‘New Doomings’ by Adrian Kennelly. These are ways in which a Player Character might die in Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG. There are four tables here, one for each season, and they offer alternatives to those list in the core rulebook. ‘Those Two Orx’ is the regular cartoon rather than cartoon strip, but at a whole page, it is taking up space that could have been put to better use, especially given the desperation of the humour. Ingacio M.’s ‘Reaction Spells’ provides a handful of spells that are variants of several Generalist Spells. For an Action Point, they can be cast as a reaction and require a spellcaster to know the original spell and then expend Experience Points to learn these ones. They include Cack-Handed Grasp, triggered when someone moves towards the caster and makes the floor in front of the caster slippery enough that the person approaching the caster might fall over and Magick Missile, triggered when someone runs away, which stuns that person, though it does not work in darkness. This is a solid section of spells, all nicely detailed, which can easily be added to a campaign.

Ingacio M. is also the author of ‘100 One Attribute NPCs’. This is not a second set of tables, but rather one table providing the very minimum of details of one hundred NPCs, including

name, archetype, attribute (value), ancestry, age group, complexion, build, and social class, and divided equally between male and female. The Game Master only has to roll once to have an NPC with a few details ready to roleplay without her having to decide a bunch of details on the spot. Or, of course, the Game Master choose one or even roll for each category to add further flexibility—if she has time. Overall, useful.

‘One Roll Combat’ by Petter Rudin-Burgess offers two things. One is an analysis of three different types of combat in roleplaying games and the other is an alternative to the complexity of combat in Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG. In turn, the author looks at Dungeons & Dragons with its use of Hit Points as a measure of combat skill rather than fortitude or endurance, the simulationist nature of combat in Rolemaster, and the slightly more abstracted nature of combat in Zweihänder. What it highlights at the end of this is the length of time that these differing means of handling combat can take. What the author suggests as an alternative in shorter or smaller combat scenes where the action does not need to play out blow by blow, is to have the player describe what he wants his character to do, the Game Master assess and set the difficulty, and then the player roll, adjusting the result with Fate and Fortune points as necessary. The outcome of the roll determines the narrative. Perhaps a little overwritten, this is nevertheless, a useful suggestion that is worth a Zweihänder Game Master taking the time to look at.

‘The Bailiff of the Problem’ is the first of two scenarios in Lowborn Issue I. Written by Sean Van Damme, it is a short murder mystery that can be prepared and played in a single session. Although it is suggested that the Game Master use the Villagers & Villains – 40 NPCs From Humble to Heroic, it is not absolutely necessary. All that is necessary, is that the Player Characters be in their Basic professions. It starts with the Player Characters having been hired by a magistrate to locate a tax collector who has gone missing whilst collecting taxes from the tiny community of Labarn. On the road to the village, they discover the tax collector’s body which has suffered some odd injuries. The scenario really consists of an investigation in Labarn, centred on interviews with several of the inhabitants. Like a classic murder mystery, they all had reason to hate the dead man. There may be a little combat involved, but this is mainly an interactive and roleplaying scenario. It is quite detailed despite its brevity and so should not be too taxing for the players and their characters to solve. It is also left up to them to decide how they resolve the situation. This is short and sweet, its brevity making it easy to add to a campaign.

‘Carnival’ by Ignacio M. is intentionally and magically odd. Descriptions of carnivals or circuses, typically the façade for a dark cult are a common trope in roleplaying games inspired by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay such as Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, but this is different. It is enveloped by magic even to the extent that the wagons and tents are arranged like a magical circle. What that magic hides and embraces is that the operators are all anthropomorphic animals. So, they are different and they are also not members of a dark cult. Many of the wagons and tents are, in their own way, expansive. One offers a library of thousands and thousands of books, and more—if one knows the right incantation to open up the stacks, whilst the House of Mirrors contains a labyrinth of mirrors that in turn can teleport the viewer to a desired location or give a view of a particular person and enable the viewer to cross over to them spiritually for a short time. Only three of the tents or wagons are described, so there is scope for expansion here and also, there are no stats for any of the NPCs. If there is an issue for the article, it is the inclusion of the anthropomorphic NPCs and whether that fits a Game Master’s campaign. She, of course, has the right to change such details and the various NPCs could be hiding something else instead. Bar some scenario ideas or hooks, ‘Carnival’ offers an intriguing and different type of circus, one with plenty of room for expansion and development.

The second scenario in Lowborn Issue I is Peter Rudin-Burgess’ ‘The Bloody Jack’. It takes place in the village of Gürdenstein where the inhabitants have become wary of strangers. This is not for usual reasons found in roleplaying games, but rather because they are being taken advantage. Recently, Erik Hecher arrived in the village with nothing more than a few coins in his pocket and the rough clothes on his back, but in the few weeks since, he has greatly improved himself—new tailored clothes, a haircut, and so on. He has taken up residence and similarly improved the house he has moved into. The monies for this have come from his successful gambling. There is something odd going on and it will not take much for the Player Characters to discover that Erik is in league with a demon! Upon this revelation, the villagers, incensed at their gambling losses, take their revenge on him in an act of mob violence. Unfortunately, this unleashes a curse, one that the Player Characters are in the best place to help lift. This involves a journey to a nearby monastery and the Player Characters will be plagued by demons who still want their revenge for Erik’s death. Puttng aside the question of quite where the villagers got the money that Erik was fleecing from them, the Game Master will need to provide stats and perhaps it would have been good if the Player Characters were given more of a chance to interact with Erik Hecher to learn his story. Otherwise, this is a decently dark and nasty scenario, very in keeping with the ‘Grim & Perilous’ tone the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG.

Physically, Lowborn Issue I is a bit untidy and rough around the edges, plus it needs a slight edit. That said, it is a first issue, so there are bound to be teething problems.

Lowborn Issue I is an impressive first issue. It has decent content, which includes two, very playable adventures. And the truth is, both of those scenario would work just as well with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition (or whatever ‘Grim & Perilous’ roleplaying game the Game Master is running) and not just Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG.