[Fanzine Focus XXXVIII] The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions

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

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will 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 the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game from Goodman Games. Some of these fanzines provide fantasy support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but others explore other genres for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One such fanzine is The Valley Out of Time.

The Valley Out of Time is a six-part series published by Skeeter Green Productions. It is written for use with both the Dungeon Crawl Classics RolePlaying Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, ‘The Valley Out of Time’ is a ‘Lost Worlds’ style setting a la X1 The Isle of Dread, and films such as The Land that Time Forgot, The Lost World, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, One Million years, B.C., and others, plus the artwork of Frank Frazetta. Combining dinosaurs, Neanderthals, and a closed environment, it is intended to be dropped into a campaign with relative ease and would work in both a fantasy campaign or a post-apocalyptic campaign. It could even work as a bridge between the two, with two different possible entries into ‘The Valley Out of Time’, one from a fantasy campaign and one from a post-apocalyptic campaign.

The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions is the fourth issue in the series and finally—finally—the series does something more than just give the Judge one more dinosaur or megafauna or one more fight with one more dinosaur or megafauna. For the Judge that wants fights and monsters, the first three issues of The Valley Out of Time were perfect, but for the Judge wanting more, they were a disappointment. What the series promises is set out on the back cover: “The Valley Out of Time is a series of ’zine-sized adventures from SGP. This valley can be placed in any ongoing campaign, and is set in the “Neanderthal Period” of development. Huge monsters – both dinosaurs and otherwise – and devolved humanoids plague the area, and only the hardiest of adventurers will prevail!” The key word here is ‘adventure’. There is not a single adventure, with plot and interaction and motivation and other elements that the players and their characters can grasp and engage with, in the first three issues of fanzine. Thankfully—thankfully—with The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions actually begins to deliver on its promise.

As the title suggests, The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions details some of the various groups and peoples of the valley as well as providing encounters and ways in which to interact with them. This includes four adventures or extended encounters, backgrounds on some of the tribes, and more. The tribes and adventures are divided into three sections, ‘Beastmen and Other Things’, ‘Urmanoids and Other Less-Developed Tribes’, and ‘The Urman, And Establishment Of Society’, each of which deals with different tribes and factions and gives a scenario or two. In ‘Beastmen and Other Things’, the groupings are Beastmen, the equivalent of Dungeons & Dragons’ non-human tribes, such as Goblins, Kobolds, and Orcs. The first of two entries for this section is ‘Here Comes the Cavalry’, the tribe being with ‘Pig-mees’, actually taken from Fight This Mutant. It begins in typical The Valley Out of Time fashion with the Player Characters encountering the Pig-mees after or during a fight that they are having with several dinosaurs, in this case, some Deinonychi. The Beastmen might aid the Player Characters or they might ambush them, depending upon how well the Player Characters are doing. Afterwards, there is potential for a parley and even some trade as the spoils of the fight are divided up. The encounter will be eased if the Player Characters have access to the Comprehend languages spell.

The second scenario begins in similar fashion, with the Player Characters encountering a dinosaur, having a fight with it, and then someone coming to their rescue. In ‘Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?’, it is Ophidian Beastmen. They will not only aid the Player Characters, but offer to share the treasure—in this case, the eggs of the Giant Iguana Lizard they were fighting—and invite them back to their dwellings to celebrate the victory. Of course, the Ophidian Beastmen, a la the Serpent Men of the Cthulhu Mythos or Robert E. Howard, have their own motives for helping the Player Characters—and they are not good! This scenario does carry a content warning, as it does include a horrifying possible ending in which the Player Characters become incubators for the snake-like humanoids’ eggs. There are notes alongside on the Ophidian Beastmen culture which the Judge can use to develop later encounters with them, though for ‘Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?’, the Judge may want to draw some maps of the Ophidian Beastmen’s underground lair.

‘Urmanoids and Other Less-Developed Tribes’ focuses on Urmanoid troops and families found across the valley. They do not yet have a language, but in comparison to other groupings in the valley, they are peaceful and family-orientated. They also tend to specialise in skills, such as builders or animal tenders, and there is even the possibility that a troop might specialise in communication and learn Common from the Player Characters. They are supported with an actual proper scenario, one that has a beginning, a middle, and an end, a plot, and opportunities to roleplay. Further, in an astonishing development for The Valley Out of Time series, ‘Ranch Hands’ does not actually begin with the Player Characters having an encounter with a dinosaur and having to fight it! Instead, they discover an Urmanoid village and are welcomed to stay, and even encouraged to join in the daily activities of the tribe. Then the tribe’s hogs are attacked by Dire Wolves! This is not the first time and their hosts decide to track the Dire Wolves to their lair and put an end to the menace. They will welcome any help upon the part of the Player Characters. Fighting the Dire Wolves and investigating their lair reveals an even bigger threat—not just the Dire Wolf Pack Alpha—but also a Man-Wolf! There are also hints of a bigger mystery too, one that will hopefully be developed in The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core, the next entry in the series. Overall, this is the most sophisticated adventure that has been presented in The Valley Out of Time series to date.

The entries in The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions have been working up the developmental ladder and reaches the most advanced group with ‘The Urman, And Establishment Of Society’. It develops earlier content and makes full use of the Dungeon Crawl Classics dice to determine each tribe’s general appearance, organisation, and technological development. The attached scenario is ‘Jungle Saviors’, which begins with the Player Characters stumbling into a clearing consisting of blood-soaked mud and bones surrounding a squat and ugly idol. Then out of the surrounding jungle, a band of small, but also ugly Urman attack! The Player Characters have trespassed on their sacred site, but fortunately—or unfortunately, they are not interested in killing the Player Characters. They have other plans for them, plans that warrant another content warning for this issue of the fanzine. The encounter does not quite get that far as an even more scary-looking group of Urmen, looking like jungle ghosts, attacks the Player Characters and the other Urmen alike, turning the encounter into a three-way fight! Again, this is more of an extended encounter, one that sets up an interesting situation, but never quite fully develops the aftermath as it could have done.

The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions also includes discussions of barter, trade, and the economy of the valley and religion in the valley. ‘Barter, Trade, And The Economy Of Valley’ looks at what the tribes’ value and what they might trade for it—based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs—as well as what the Player Characters might be able to barter for with the items that they bring into the valley with them. It also looks at unique items to be found in the valley and how they might be worked into a campaign. ‘Religion In The Valley (And Other Fey Tales)’ looks at worship in the valley, emphasising how it is often more immediate in nature, helping the valley’s inhabitants get through the day. It also examines other motivations such as expanding the tribe (as in a couple of cases in the issue’s encounters) or conquest, but suggests that primarily, what the inhabitants worship are primarily related to nature. It also notes that the inhabitants’ pragmatic attitude towards death means that undead are rare in the valley beyond ghosts and apparitions. The importance of omens is highlighted and the essay notes that these can play a significant role in interacting with the valley dwellers. These are frustratingly good overviews of both subject matters as they pertain to the valley. Frustrating in that it has taken four issues of the fanzine to get to this point to really look at life in the valley rather than list dinosaur after dinosaur.

The issue comes to a close with appendices that start with entries for the new monsters in the issue (despite them being given in the actual adventures), including stats for the Urman. ‘Resources Of The Valley’ is a nice accompaniment to the earlier essay on trade and barter, whilst the third appendix gives a little flavour text that adds another legend to the valley.

Physically, The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions is well presented and well written. The artwork is of a reasonable quality.

With The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions, The Valley Out of Time series begins to deliver on some of the promises made by the author at the beginning of every issue. It starts to look at the valley as a whole, its inhabitants and their lives, and supports that with better scenarios rather than just dinosaur, dinosaur, dinosaur, dinosaur, dinosaur, dinosaur. There really should have been more content like this from the start and it is a shame that it has taken the author so long to get to an actual proper overview of just some of the elements to the setting that would enable the Judge to run it properly.