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 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. However, the vicissitudes of time and taste along with publisher decisions and in many cases, the publication of newer, hotter retroclones that capture the imagination of the Old School Renaissance means that some retroclones fall out of favour and so are no longer actively supported, whether that is by their publishers or their fans through fanzines. Such is the case with Labyrinth Lord. Fortunately, modern digital publishing means that many of the fanzines published for Labyrinth Lord and other, now less popular retroclones, are still available to download, and just like the fanzines of the early years of the hobby, they are still worth examining because their content is compatible with even the most contemporary of retroclones. One such fanzine is The Dragon Horde.
The issue begins with ‘The Monster Roster’ and a pair of monsters. The ‘Leech-Man’ is exactly that, a man-sized, man-shaped version of the leech, whilst the ‘Beguine’ is a Neutral Good hybrid-Race that combines Elves and Halflings. The ‘Leech-Man’ is the more interesting of the two and could easily be added to a campaign as a monster in a swampy or cave-like environments, whilst the ‘Beguine’ does not fulfil any real purpose. The ‘d30 FEATURE’—drawn from The d30 DM Companion—is ‘Where Does the Weapon Hit?’ gives a quick and dirty means of handling hit locations using a thirty-sided die, modified by attacker’s height, and allowing for the possibility of different armour being worn in different locations.
The very basic map of ‘Yal Caramon’ is accompanied by ‘Lerdyn Chrisawn’s Chronicle’, a history of the continent. This discusses the several thousand years of the continent via the more than fifteen thousand volumes of Chrisawn’s Chronicle. The volumes are mostly written as a series of poems and epics before becoming more ordinary and prosaic as much of the continent settled down, became peaceful and organized, and then being upended when the Chaos came and the south-western lands were broiled for a thousand days as if under as many suns. Unfortunately, the most recent volumes have been stolen away, suspected by many as means to hide the culprits for the Chaos. As a very brief history, this is actually quite interesting and has the potential to be expanded and developed into something playable. However, there is no sense of place or geography to either really and it would require no little development to be something more.
The following NPC Class in ‘New NPC Class: Chroniclist’ does fit the setting though and could be added to others. The Classes specialises in languages, learning a new one every Level, and at later Levels gain the abilities of Memorisation and Insight, able to detect true meaning in someone’s words, and Comprehension, able to decipher unknown texts. From Second Level, the Chroniclist gains a ‘Branch’ at every Level, each one an area of geographical, cultural, military, and social knowledge. The deeper the knowledge of a Branch, the more exacting a question a Chroniclist can answer. Effectively, the Chroniclist is variant of the Sage NPC Class, but focuses on linguistics and anthropology as much as history and geography. They are very specialised, but very powerful within that specialisation.
The scenario in The Dragon Horde Issue #1 is ‘The Undertemple of Arkon – An Adventure for Characters Levels 1-3’. The Player Characters are engaged to investigate the remains of a temple which was founded by a cult dedicated to a large, very charming cat known as ‘Shadowcat’ and thrown down by the locals when the cult too large and too much of a threat, and where culists have recently returned. The dungeon does have a cat-theme running through it, but is often repetitive. The cultists are definitely back and definitely evil, even sacrificing the Bugbears which had taken up residence to feed to the reluctant panthers! The final battle against Arkon could have been better handled, since his major ability relies on his enemies looking into his eyes, and there is no real explanation as to what Arkon is beyond a big panther, what his cultists want, and so on. Underwritten without those explanations and serviceable with them.
Better still—and likely best of all in the issue—is ‘Seven New Magical Weapons’. This does what it describes, but is inventive. For example, Fumbleblade is a +1 dagger that forces the defender when struck on a roll of a natural twenty to drop everything in his hands, and Sickening Sword, a +1 longsword that inflicts, with a failed Saving Throw versus Poison, to temporarily suffer nausea and a penalty to hit. These are different and add some pleasing variety to the usual mix of magical weapons.
Lastly, ‘Who Speaks What: A Languages Spoken Crib Sheet’ is exactly that, a quick guide to the languages spoken by Dungeons & Dragons fantasy races and ‘Who’s in the Tavern: Tables to Fill the Tables at the Local Tavern’ provides a set of tables for rolling up tavern patrons. Both useful in their own way.
Physically, The Dragon Horde Issue #1 is as ever so slightly rough as you would for a fanzine using the early desktop publishing software. Problematically, this is intentionally so, such as with the choice of typeface which does make the fanzine challenging to read. The artwork is decent though, especially the cover.
The Dragon Horde Issue #1 is a love letter to the author’s past and the fanzines of his youth, and it does suffer for it. It is not as easy to read as it should be and its content is not as well realised as it could because of the lack context or background. There are bits and pieces in the issue that a Game Master might want to pick over, but they are far and few between, and given, this is not a fanzine that has yet found its voice or knows what it is yet.
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