[Fanzine Focus XLII] Hypergraphia Issue o

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 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. Of course, not all fanzines are dedicated to classic fantasy roleplaying games.

Hypergraphia Issue o was published in August, 2017 for release the following October at NecronomiCon Providence 2017. It takes its name from the rare behavioural condition in which the sufferer has the compulsive urge to write or draw, often resulting in voluminous amounts of text or detailed illustrations. However, the fanzine does not suffer from the effects of the latter, since it only runs to thirty-two pages in length. In-keeping with the nature of NecronomiCon Providence: The International Conference and Festival of Weird Fiction, Art, and Academia, a biennial convention and academic conference held in Providence, Rhode Island dedicated to the life and works of H. P. Lovecraft and other creators of weird fiction, film, and art, the contents of the fanzine are dedicated to Lovecraftian investigative horror. Mechanically, all of the content is written for Cthulhu Dark, the rules light roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror. What this means that all of the content is readily adaptable to the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror (or just horror) of the Game Master’s choice.

The issue opens with ‘Night Business – Three scenario hooks for Cthulhu Dark’s London 1851 setting’ by Charles Gerard. They include ‘Link-Boys’ in which it rumoured that the Link-Boys that once lit the way home for pedestrians on the streets of London have retreated from the gaslit streets into the maze of alleyways and other dark routes, where razor-teethed , some hunt the unwary. ‘Rat-Catchers’ asks how far will the suppliers for the rat-baiting pits go in providing tougher creatures and what happens when the rats push back? Lastly, in ‘Resurrectionists’, the cadaver gangs have returned to London to fulfil a shortage of bodies for the surgeons and the anatomists. Where have the bodies of the dead of the workhouses gone and who is disinterring the dead now? Overall, nicely detailed ideas that the Game Master can develop into some further.

In between, Ed Possing’s ‘Unwanted Visitor’ is a short piece of fiction that hints at the dread of being alone in the cabin in the woods, as ‘Cleaning Up the Supernatural – An investigator background for any game system’ from Tyler Hudak explores the role of the janitor or garbage collector in horror games. He notes that theirs is a ubiquitous and unnoticed presence, collecting rubbish, raking over the trash, and having access to caustic chemicals and disposal systems. There are no game stats, but it suggests that stealth and hiding skills are appropriate along with lower social skills and a lower social status given the nature of the job. It is perhaps slightly too basic a description to really work from, but the article is accompanied by a trio scenario hooks and a description of ‘The Order of Janus’, originally founded in Ancient Rome to clean up evidence of activity. In the modern day, the Janus Corporation performs crime scene clean-up for law enforcement around the world. It is an interesting idea and would be fascinating to see this developed further with some actual scenarios and Occupational write-up.

There is more support for the period with Max Mahaffa’s ‘Ashes in the Dark – A scenario hook for Cthulhu Dark’s London 1851 setting’. It highlights the horrors of being a chimney sweep in the Victorian era, whilst also presenting a horror they could encounter at 50 Berkeley Square, infamously described as, ‘the most haunted house in London’. Essentially, there is something nasty in the chimneys of the townhouse, and the sweeps are noticing how few boys go in and come out again. What if the Player Characters are given the task of sweeping the townhouse’s twisted, cramped chimneys? Playing on claustrophobia, it includes lists of key words to describe the location, physical feelings, and the monster itself.

Somewhere on the road to Kingsport stands ‘The Green Bough Inn – A setting for any game system’ by Anthony Lee-Dudley. The dark and sombre building is as unwelcoming as the family that run it. The accompanying adventure seeds suggest that the family leads a cult in the nearby woods, that have something growing in the attic, and so on. In comparison to the hooks presented elsewhere in the issue, these are threadbare and will need no little development to be fully useful.

Ian MacLean explores the mysteries and legends of Canada in ‘Occultarum Borealis’. In particular, the lost village of Hochelaga. The St. Lawrence Iroquoian village was described by French explorer Jacques Cartier in October, 1535, in some detail as being well-defended, organised, and home to two thousand indigenous peoples. However, when Samuel de Champlain, ‘the father of New France’, visited the area seventy years later, it was gone. Although suggestions are given as to what actually happed—war, emigration, or disease—the article suggests that the Player Characters could be European visitors or even other locals looking to trade, but they could also be from rival tribes wanting to war on the village of Hochelaga. Further, he suggests Mythos involvement in the form of Iroquoian legends of the Flying Head, said to ride on howling winds, ripping its victims apart with bloodied claws. Could this be Nyarlathotep as the Haunter of the Dark. Alternatives include suggestions which could be the ‘Little People’ or the ‘White Buffalo’ that seek the surface to writhe and ravage the lands that could be Cthonians. Another option could be Mi-Go interference given European interest in mining rights. This is one of the more detailed articles in the fanzine and gives a lot of suggestions for the Game Master to work with, no matter which roleplaying game she is using.

‘Fragments of Fears and Phobias – Coulrophobia: Fear of Clowns’ by Sean Murphy examines the history of clowns, clowning, and the phobia some have of them. It notes that their portrayal in the media as monsters preying on children and adults alike, combined with their not quite human appearance has constantly pushed children’s happy association with clowns into fear and loathing. It is a solid overview of what appears to be a relatively new phobia and it would be interesting to see other phobias treated in the same way. Sadly, there are no hooks as there are in other articles in the fanzine.

Penultimately, Edwin Nagy takes the reader to the venue for NecronomiCon Providence, more recently seen in The Shadow Over Providence. In ‘Horror at the Biltmore’, he describes the planned multi-table Call of Cthulhu scenario at NecronomiCon Providence 2017 in which it possible for players to buy elements such as a revolver, or spell or if they are feeling nasty, a monster to add to the playthrough, and the monies going to charity. This sounds a lot of fun and a future issue of the fanzine should definitely tell what happened.

Lastly, ‘Off the Rails’ by Brian Murphy explores what happens when the players take their Investigators and gave them do something entirely unexpected, even also most counter to the scenario being played. Or at least, what happens when the Investigators decided to settle down in the Dreamlands with a lot of money in their playthrough of The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man. His solution is to escalate events to the point where the Investigators were turned into pariahs and driven from the city which had burned down after it was attacked by the Black Ship owned by the Men of Leng which the Investigators had sold. It is thoroughly apocalyptic and quite, quite entertaining.

Physically, Hypergraphia Issue o is clean, tidy, and simply laid out. The artwork is a mixture of photographs and publicly available images and well chosen.

Hypergraphia Issue o is a good mix of background and suggested ideas for play. All of it needs development to one degree or another, in order to make it playable. Otherwise this is an engaging read that will work for almost horror roleplaying game.