[Fanzine Focus XLIII] The Travellers’ Digest Number 10

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. However, not all fanzines written with the Old School Renaissance in mind need to be written for a specific retroclone. Although not the case now, the popularity of Traveller would spawn several fanzines, of which The Travellers’ Digest, published by Digest Group Publications, was the most well known and would eventually transform from a fanzine into a magazine.

The publication of The Travellers’ Digest #1 in December, 1985 marked the entry of Digest Group Publications into the hobby and from this small, but ambitious beginnings would stem a complete campaign and numerous highly-regarded supplements for Game Designers Workshop’s Traveller and MegaTraveller, as well as a magazine that all together would run for twenty-one issues between 1985 and 1990. The conceit was that The Travellers’ Digest was a magazine within the setting of the Third Imperium, its offices based on Deneb in the Deneb Sector, and that it awarded the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award. This award would be won by one of the Player Characters and thus the stage is set for ‘The Grand Tour’, the long-running campaign in the pages of The Travellers’ Digest. In classic fashion, as with Europe of the eighteenth century, this would take the Player Characters on a tour of the major capitals of known space. These include Vland, Capitol, Terra, the Aslan Hierate, and even across the Great Rift. The meat of this first issue, as well as subsequent issues, would be dedicated to an adventure, each a stop-off on the ‘The Grand Tour’, along with support for it. The date for the first issue of The Travellers’ Digest and thus when the campaign begins is 152-1101, the 152nd day of the 1101st year of the Imperium.

To best run ‘The Grand Tour’, the Referee will need access to The Atlas of the Imperium, Supplement 8: Library Data (A-M), Supplement 11: Library Data (N-Z), Supplement 7: Traders and Gunboats (or alternatively, Supplement 5: Azhanti High Lightning), as well as the core rules. In addition, other supplements would be required depending on the adventure, in the case of this issue, The Travellers’ Digest Number 9, that would only be Book 8, Robots. For ‘Reference Point’, the tenth part of ‘The Grand Tour’, the Referee will also want access to The Travellers’ Digest Number 8 and The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 for the subsector maps that appear in those issues. CHALLENGE Magazine No. 27 will also be useful. Of course, that was in 1987, and much, if not all, of the rules or background necessary have been updated since. The campaign is also specifically written for use with four pre-generated Player Characters. They consist of Akidda Laagiir, the journalist who won the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award; Dur Telemon, a scout and his nephew; Doctor Theodor Krenstein, a gifted-scientist and roboticist; and Doctor Krenstein’s valet, ‘Aybee’, or rather, ‘AB-101’. The fact is, AB-101 is a pseudo-biological robot, both protégé and prototype. Consequently, the mix of Player Characters are surprisingly non-traditional and not all of them are easily created using the means offered in Traveller or MegaTraveller. This is addressed within various issues of the fanzine.

The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 was published in 1987. One major change announced in the editorial is the magazine will no longer print the Universal Task Profile. In past issues, this has explained the mechanical format used in The Travellers’ Digest, but with the publication of and its application in MegaTraveller, it seems redundant. This gives the magazine two extra pages to play with! In previous issue, The Travellers’ Digest Number 9, and ninth part of ‘The Grand Tour’ brought the Travellers to Capital, the heart of the Third Imperium, and the Emperor’s court at ‘Before the Iridium Throne’. When ‘Reference Point’, the tenth part by Gary L. Thomas, opens, the Travellers found themselves with a problem. To get to Capital, the four Travellers were granted Imperial space-required travel vouchers. However, the Emperor’s largesse does not run in the opposite direction. Thus, they find themselves on Capital, the core of the Third Imperium, with nowhere to go and now way of paying for it! Fortunately, three of the four have transferable skills aboard ship and the other is a member of the Traveller’s Aid Society and so can begin make their way. They decide to see more of the Third Imperium and head Rimward towards Sol in the Solomani Sphere.

This is fun set-up, shifting the adventurers of the Travellers into something that is more peripatetic and more like a classic Traveller campaign. In ‘Reference Point’, the Travellers find themselves husbanding a difficult species from one zoo to another, pulling a few strings based on their various reputations, and so on, until they receive a message from Eneri Balan, who had been the protocol assigned to them on Capital. He has a task for them that he can pass on from the Moot, the primary deliberative assembly of the Third Imperium, composed of all nobles holding the rank of Baron or higher. The Baron of Wolton holds his patent on Kigaru in the Ilelish subsector, but it was destroyed along with other records in a fire. Fortunately, copies of all such records are held in the computers on the Scout Base underground on the world of Reference. Here, the records of the Third Imperium go all the way back to the First Imperial Grand Survey and the Second Imperial Grand Survey. Unfortunately, when copies of the records about Kigaru were returned, there was no mention of his barony and it was in fact, public property. This effectively strips him of his title, so he sought help from the Moot. The Travellers are to travel to Reference and investigate this discrepancy, as two of their number are computer specialists. Besides investigating this problem, the Travellers’ arrival on Reference will trigger another couple of plots, which though small, are quite interesting. The Referee will develop some of the NPCs and scenes in the mini-adventures that the Travellers will encounter and so bring them to life, ‘Reference Point’ serves up a thoroughly enjoyable slice of life with small stories that push the Travellers onwards on ‘The Grand Tour’.

‘Reference Point’ is followed by a second adventure, ‘Plague of Perruques’. This is by Gary L. Thomas and Marc W. Miller and is set in the Regina Subsector following the end of the Fifth Frontier War. The party, led by Baron Ganidiirsi hault-Reitan, are touring his holdings, surveying them for damage, when he has arranged a hunting trip for the Rebacked Slonth on Uakye in Regina Subsector. The scenario is divided into two parts. In the first half, the Player Characters go hunting, but in the second, they return to the capital to discover that a strange and unfortunately deadly plague has broken out. Its symptoms include grey fibres appearing at the roots of suffers’ hair and covering the skull in a few days, followed by a film growing over the eyes, leading to blindness and fever. It kills half of its sufferers. This is an investigative scenario in which the Player Characters need to travel to various locations, sifting rumour from fact. It is challenging and needs some set-up by the Referee to ensure that the players have some pointers to get started, but this is a solid scenario, and like ‘Reference Point’ before it, has its world data presented in same format as for The Grand Survey. Task details are provided for the hunting half of the scenario, and whilst the scenario was originally written as a tournament scenario, it does not come with any pre-generated Player Characters.

The ‘Library Data of the Core Sector’ is surprisingly extensive, paying particular attention to Cadlion and Chant Subsectors which are also detailed, compete with maps. There is a lot of detail here, and some of the entries are marked with Referee suggestions for their use. The ‘Playing the Characters’ series comes to close with an examination of Akidda Laagiir, the journalist whose Travellers’ Digest Touring Award at the start of ‘The Grand Tour’ sets the campaign off. This is useful, more so if the Referee is starting the campaign from the start. The ‘Traveller Q & A’ provides answers to the readers’ questions. These include a very detailed explanation of what MegaTraveller and Traveller: 2300 are and what the differences are between (and the original Traveller); why nobles are actually banned from taking anagathic treatments (useful in conjunction with the later article in the magazine); the stats for the Princes Lucan and Varian, and Margaret, Grand Duchess of Delphi; and much more. Some of the information here is quite technical, entirely in keeping with Traveller as a roleplaying game.

This is followed by a series of departments, old and new. For the ‘Tech Briefs’ department, any player of Akidda Laagiir will be pleased to see that the device detailed is ‘Holorecorders’. This is a recording and playback device as well as an editing suite using holocrystals. It is a highly detailed description and also suggests other applications too, such as holographic recording robots for hazardous environments, medical imaging, police crime scene recording, and more. The next department is ‘The Gaming Digest—Referee’s Tips—Part 1’ for which Gary L. Thomas explores ‘More Effective Roleplaying’. He observes that the quality of roleplaying varies wildly, especially in Traveller, but points out that actually roleplaying is a skill and can be made better with practice. This is a surprisingly deep examination of roleplaying, exploring the differences between character and player, the limitations of player knowledge in what they know and do not know, tailoring content to players’ interests, and more. The article is aimed at both the player and the Referee and is actually informative and useful, possibly more so when the issue of the magazine was published.

‘Anagathics, the Drug of the Ages’ by Joe D. Fugate Sr. examines the development of the anti-ageing drugs and how they are obtained, what their possible side effects are, and more. Anti-ageing treatment becomes available at Tech Level 12 and rules are provided for this, and then again at subsequent Tech Levels up to 15. There are fewer side-effects as the science advances, but the article also examines what happens if a Player Character takes a break between treatments or runs out and suffers withdrawal symptoms. However, the article is more technical than social, so the social consequences are not explored, which is a pity. Otherwise, this comprehensive guide and useful should players have their character seek out anagathics. ‘Statistics From the Second Imperial Grand Survey’ brings the support for Traveller in the issue to a close. It consists mostly of numbers so is not that interesting.

The last few pages of The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 are devoted to Traveller: 2300. First, William Connors describes ‘Pentapod Constructs for 2300’, a number of biological devices available on the open market from the alien species. They include a ‘Breather’, a lifeform that when worn enables the user to breathe freely underwater (the lifeform does look like a Facehugger though…); the ‘Hibernation Inducer’, a black blob that when placed on the back of an injured person induces unconsciousness and a greatly lowered metabolism to enable the person to be transported to medical safety; and ‘Atmospheric Filter Symbiots’, tiny creatures that can be injected into the lungs to filter out trace elements that would normally harm the host. The ‘Briefcase Library for 2300’ by Robert Parker describes a briefcase-sized device that uses optical storage drives to store vast amounts of information suitable for personal use and transportation to the frontier. Of course, it looks vastly outdated by modern standards, being the equivalent of the modern laptop. Nancy Parker gives a very detailed breakdown of the ‘Medical Kit for 2300’, detailing what medical kit contains and must be carried by vehicles with a passenger capacity of thirty or more and also by emergency workers. Lastly, Robert Parker also describes ‘The Life Foundation “Squid” for 2300’, a relatively cheap and easily customisable submersible for frontier use. Unfortunately, there are no technical details or deck plans, but otherwise, this is a nice description.

Physically, The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 continues the physical improvement begun in the previous issue. The artwork is improved too and overall, this is a much more professional looking issue.

After the tumultuous events explored in The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 with the assassination of Emperor Strephon, The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 settles down and concerns itself with providing solidly gameable support for both MegaTraveller and Traveller: 2300. The scenarios in the issue are good, ‘Reference Point’, the tenth part of ‘The Grand Tour’ is really quite enjoyable. The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 is simply a good issue with good support for both roleplaying games from Game Designers’ Workshop.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley

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: Gods Walk the Valley is the sixth and final entry in the series. Unfortunately, it marks a return to form for the series. Unlike the fourth and fifth issues in the series before it, The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions and The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core it does not do anything 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, and the good news is that in the case of The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley, that Judge will find the issue equally as good. However, for the Judge wanting more, this sixth issue as well as the first three issues, will be 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 problem is that the series failed to deliver on anything more than just dinosaurs and at best, very minor encounters, all of which emphasised combat rather than interaction or exploration. Certainly, until The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions and The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core, the series failed to provide what might be called an adventure as promised on the back cover.

One of the things that The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley does do is address the issue of Player Character motivations. Unfortunately, in previous issues, the series has steadfastly refused to make any suggestions as to what they might be and leave the Judge to decide what they are—which in all fairness is the series’ signature design feature. Here though, they are included and they suggest that the Player Characters might have been cast through some random portal and ended up in the valley, found the valley deep into a mountain range they were exploring, or have found their way into a jungle enclave shut off from the rest of the world by some powerful entities who wanted to see how it developed free of outside influence, to protect the location of an artefact, to imprison dangerous creatures, or a mix of all four. Putting aside that it is strange to suggest these ideas so late in the series, it should be no surprise that having suggested them, the fanzine leaves it up to the Judge to develop which of them to choose and then develop.

The mainstay of this sixth and final issue of the fanzine is four, highly detailed encounters monstrous beings, the almost god-like things alluded to by the issue title. In ‘The Living Jungle’ the Player Characters are cutting their way through the jungle when it comes to life and attacks them. They must defend themselves against a Topiary-Thing and Animated Palm Trees (a variant of the Treant) lead by a Dryad whom the Player Characters have unwittingly angered in slashing their way through the jungle. Unfortunately, there is no way of resolving the situation other than with a fight. So no doing a service or task for the Dryad as restitution and therefore no opportunities for interaction or roleplaying. Worse, this is not the only encounter like this in this or previous issues of the fanzine. So, whilst the creatures might well designed and detailed, the encounter itself strikes a disappointingly singular note.

The second encounter, ‘The Summoning’ has more depth and detail, but that is because it is a bigger encounter. The Player Characters crest a hill to look down upon an enormous ziggurat at the base of which a ceremony is being enacted at the end of which it is clear that a sacrifice will be performed. This is to summon a prime ooze from beyond time and space (for Dungeon Crawl Classics) or activate a War-bot (for Mutant Crawl Classics) and with five hundred feet between them and the ziggurat, the Player Characters have time to act. The combat is broken down into a timeline that last several rounds which track what the enemy is doing. At the end of it, the Player Characters might find a great artefact, an Orb of Power (for Dungeon Crawl Classics) or Dimensional Orb (for Mutant Crawl Classics). The Orb of Power gives a statistic and spellcasting bonus, whilst the Dimensional Orb gives a bonus to the program checks and access to a patron AI. However, the possessor cannot let the artefact out of his sight, but beyond that, either artefact feels underwhelming.

In ‘Ancient Hero’ the Player Characters find a great stone slab on the side of a hill. If they can shift the slab, they find inside a tomb for a Skeletal Champion (for Dungeon Crawl Classics) or Scream Champion (for Mutant Crawl Classics). If the Player Characters can defeat this mighty monster and its companions, there is an equally mighty treasure to gained. This is The Bloody Hand, a cursed and Chaotic two-handed sword that causes those of opposed Alignment to bleed when wounded with it. However, the sword must take a life every twenty-four lest the wielder suffer actual damage or a statistic loss (the weapon is highly reminiscent of certain soul-sucking sword…). Following a rumour—which makes a nice change from just wandering into an encounter—about a flame that fell out of the sky, the Player Characters investigate which might be its crash site, the Isle of Golenmot, deep in the jungle. It turns out that the crater where it landed, now full of muck and water is actually home to a giant snapping turtle—and it is hungry. If they defeat it, the Player Characters may find the meteorite at the bottom of the lake, but other than that, the encounter is over and done with.

Beyond that, The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley presents write-ups for all of the monsters that the Player Characters will have faced in the previous four encounters in Appendix A. Then in Appendix B, ‘Resources of the Valley’ reprints details of materials used in the valley rather than metal—bone, wood, and diamond. Between them, Appendix A and Appendix B, along with the article on materials, and the empty three pages of ‘GM Notes’, make up half of the issue, and add nothing to the fanzine. The unnecessary repetition of material here could have been put to so much better use, but instead, half of the fanzine is a waste of space.

So The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley is essentially is four combat encounters. Four, big, bruising combat encounters, but nothing more, nothing less. And not one of them adds to The Valley Out of Time as a setting and not one of them an adventure as promised.

Physically, The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley is well presented and well written. The artwork is of a reasonable quality.

As a series, The Valley Out of Time has continued to astound and astonish in the author’s steadfast refusal to explore the concept of a lost valley and the sense of a lost valley as a place, instead, presenting again and again, one combat encounter with a dinosaur or megafauna after another with nary an opportunity for roleplaying. It is as if the author found the concept of a lost valley, pointed the Judge towards it, and then lost the concept entirely, leaving the Judge to do all of the work to make it a gameable space. And that is not what a good fanzine should be doing.

In the meantime, there scope for someone to step up and write a lost valley setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics and/or Mutant Crawl Classics which has setting details, plots, motivations, NPCs, hooks, secrets, and more that the Judge can run for her players without having to do all of the heavy lifting, because The Valley Out of Time does none of that.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] The Beholder Issue 8

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. As new fanzines have appeared, there has been an interest in the fanzines of the past, and as that interest has grown, they have become highly collectible, and consequently more difficult to obtain and write about. However, in writing about them, the reader should be aware that these fanzines were written and published between thirty and forty years ago, typically by roleplayers in their teens and twenties. What this means is that sometimes the language and terminology used reflects this and though the language and terminology is not socially acceptable today, that use should not be held against the authors and publishers unduly.

The Beholder was a British fanzine first published in April, 1979. Dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it ran to twenty-seven issues, the last being published in July, 1981. It was popular and would be awarded ‘Best Games Fanzine’ at the Games Day convention in 1980. After the final issue of The Beholder, the editors would go on to release a number of anthologies which collected content from the complete run of the fanzine such as Beholder Supplement Glossary of Magic, which collected many of the magical items which appeared in the fanzine and collated them into a series of tables for easy use by the Dungeon Master, and Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2, the first of several scenario anthologies.

The Beholder Issue No. 8 was published in October 1979. The editorial notes that the range and number of articles in the issue grows (though there is increase in page count), such as ‘Developing Campaign’ replacing ‘DMs’ Corner’. It also notes that the number of Dungeons & Dragons fanzines on the market continues to grow, pointing to the increasing popularity in the United Kingdom of Dungeons & Dragons at the time such that its fans want to get involved in the hobby beyond simple play. Both editors—Michael G. Stoner and Guy R.J. Duke—point out that The Beholder, “…[I]s the only British D&D ’zine to appear each month and always on time, while containing highly commended articles. Plus, of course, we are the cheapest ’zine around.”

The actual content begins with ‘The Anti-Paladin’. The article comments that the sub-class never seems to reach ‘official’ status, but the version here is exactly what you would expect. The Anti-Paladin can Detect Good, is immune to disease, emanates Protection from Good in a ten feet radius, can affect commands undead if he was two Levels lower, gains extra benefits from wielding an Unholy Sword, and can gain a Nightmare as a mount. Honestly, there is nothing outstanding about this version. More interesting is the ‘Monster Summoning’ article which presents a family of the Beholder, Genus Occulus. They are all descendants of the Globular Fungus, of which the Beholder itself and the Eye of Darkness are the most recent additions. The Globular Fungus is a fungus, immobile, but with a single tentacle with which it lashes out and attempts to implant spores. Its evolutionary descendent is the Eye Eater, a bulbous eye which moves around by leaping on its tentacles and then attacking its prey’s heads and sucking out of all of its vital matter through the eyes, whilst the Scuttling Orb which has spider’s legs and five eyes round its body from which can cast spell-like effects. The Eye of Darkness is the Chaotic equivalent of the Beholder, but has more teeth and does not radiate heat or cold. In addition, its touch causes Level Drain and it hates light. Originally submitted by A. Shellard, these add some variety to the concept of the Beholder and do that thing that many monsters in Dungeons & Dragons are designed to do, which is to surprise the Player Characters! There is some invention here and some coherency by making them an evolutionary family.

Traveller is one of the few other roleplaying games to be covered in the pages of The beholder. In D. Parrington’s ‘Traveller additions’, he presents expanded details of missiles from Traveller and its starship combat board game, Mayday. It describes mainly light and medium missiles and breaks down their Drive type, Technology, and what they can be fitted with. Stand missiles are light, medium missiles are so large that a ship’s turret needs to be modified and can only be fitted with a single missile. Warhead types run from minifusion to fission and fusion onto gravity bomb and antimatter bomb. There are stats for several starships—a thousand ton ‘E’ Type Cruiser, two hundred ton ‘C’ Type Corvette, one hundred ton ‘G’ Type Gun Boat, and thousand ton ‘T’ Type Transport—as well as heavy weapons like the Gasers, Plasma Bolts, Tractor Beams, Pressor Beams, and (magnetic field) Inductor. This is very much for the group that wants more detail for starship combat in Traveller. The weapons and ships are easier to use than the rules for missile construction which need to be worked through and experimented with to get right.

If you are bored with traditional Dungeons & Dragons Races, the eponymous ‘Leprechauns’ is the suggested option. The Leprechaun is cheeky, mischievous, and often annoying, with a love of wine. The Leprechaun can pick locks, has magic resistance, turn invisible once per day and cast the Ventriloquism Magic-User spell once per day. They tend to make better Thieves and Illusionists. They do not have high Dexterity or Intelligence, but low Strength and Constitution, and they must have either a Neutral or Chaotic alignment. Leprechauns are not an obvious choice, and the annoying aspect of their personality could grate very quickly.

In between, editor Guy R.J. Duke writes ‘Ficklemice’, a cartoon strip about dungeoneering mice. It is a bit cramped and a bit difficult to follow easily. Dave Richards’ ‘Snitch’ is a cartoon strip that is much easier to follow, but again is cramped. Quite literally called ‘Space Filler’, a very tiny article suggests that when selling magical items, Player Characters should not get list price and that if the item is desirable enough, the buyers who were successful might turn on the players. To which the answer is, well, yes. Similarly, ‘fearful phantasms ?’ suggests a way around an Illusionist or Magic-User casting a spell like Phantasmal Force or Polymorph Self in order to cause fear. The first is to ask if the Player Characters has seen the cause of the fear itself, sufficiently enough to be able to emulate it, and then ask if the target seen the same seen the cause of the fear? It also allows for some gradation in terms of that fear effect. Again, it is good advice. The discussion of Illusions continues later with ‘Thoughts on Illusions’. It tackles similar issues with Phantasmal Force as ‘fearful phantasms ?’, though in broader play rather than just in causing fear. The advice given is intended to prevent the players such spells by using them beyond their limits and if applied should do so.

The dungeon in the adventure is ‘Rala’s Block’. This is a four Level dungeon whose Levels ascend, built into a giant featureless stone block atop a hill by the ex-dungeoneer, Rala, to test and kill off younger dungeoneers. There are no exact guidelines as what Level Player Character the dungeon is aimed at, though it does say that a careful First Level Player Character could survive what is a challenging ‘death trap’ type dungeon. However, a mid-Level Player Character is probably better suited. This is a good mix of puzzles, traps, and monsters, though more of the first two than the last one, but this is very much a dungeon for dungeon’s sake. Which makes sense, since it is a test of sorts—but mostly a death trap for Rala’s amusement.

A. Shellard also contributes ‘Expressing Alignment’, which attempts a more accurate measurement of a Player Character or NPC’s alignment. It is plotted on a set of concentric circles with Neutral in the centre and the other alignments mapped onto the edges of the circle. The closer to the edge a character’s Alignment is, the more rigid or stronger it is. The diagram is also designed to allow easier movement that reflect radical changes in Alignment without going through true Neutral all of the time. The suggested system does complicate the Alignment system, so very much a case of a group needing to decide whether they wanted to adopt is as part of its house rules.

Penultimately, ‘INFO’ addresses some of the queries raised by the fanzine’s readers. Probably the most notable one is whether there were going to be future issues of another fanzine popular at the time, Underworld Oracle. The update and what the editors know is a bit gossipy, but it highlights the community that existed at the time around creators and editors of fanzines. Lastly, ‘Developing Campaign’, which provides ‘optional systems for your campaign’, ‘1. Archaic Colleges’ is a way in which Magic-Users can learn their spells. It is written to address this difficulty because the then newly published Advanced Dungeons & Dragons does not. In an advanced civilisation, the article’s solution is to establish colleges of magic that government can tax. There have been whole articles and supplements devoted to this subject in the years since this fanzine, but for the arcane spellcaster this is more loosely structured, enabling the Player Character or NPC to continue studying magic on a day release basis—or rather adventure release basis! Study, go adventuring, earn Experience Points sufficient to go up a Level and hopefully find enough treasure to fund learning a few more spells. This would have been reasonable solution in 1979 and more so if the other Classes had not entirely dissimilar ways and costs of gaining abilities as Levels were acquired.

Physically, The Beholder Issue No. 8 is slightly untidy in places, but readable. The layout is tight and that does make it difficult to read in places. Both illustrations and cartography are reasonable.

The Beholder Issue No. 8 notes a marked shift to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, which should no surprise given that the cost three books were then just available. It still some of the preoccupations as with Dungeons & Dragons though—Alignment, particular spell effects, character advancement, and so on—exacerbated by the publication of the then new rules. There is nothing truly outstanding in the issue, but its solutions to various issues and problems would have been read with interest and thought about and discussed, which is ultimately the point.

is interesting to read because it is a good snapshot of the hobby in 1979 and what the preoccupations of its players were. Notably more monsters and ways in which to test or surprise the players and their characters, and the eager anticipation with which the next big release from TSR, Inc. was expected. This is a solid issue, not necessarily great, but not bad either. It is interesting to see how the hobby occupies the attention of the editors and how much time they would have needed to devote to both it and the very regular releases of the fanzine.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] Guide to Grunts

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.

Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers is a systemless sourcebook designed for fantasy games in general, rather than a specific roleplaying game. Which means that it will work with many Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games. Released following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is designed and published by Gonzo History Project, better known as James Holloway, the host of the Monster Man podcast, who also published The Magonium Mine Murders.

Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers is a companion volume to the highly regarded Pamphlet of Pantheons: Guide to Creating Fantasy Myths and Religions. Where the latter helped the Game Master create pantheons, gods and deities, and religions, this supplement helps the Game Master create units and soldiers for fantasy armies. There are plenty of supplements that do this for fantasy roleplaying, often helping the Game Master create military units modelled using the same stats and details as a Player Character in Dungeons & Dragons, and then, providing rules to have them clash on the field of battle. Guide to Grunts is different and does not that do that.

Instead, Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers focuses upon the ways and wherefores of a military unit. Who and what the unit members are made up of, why they fight, how they are paid, what is the unit’s obligation, whether they are conscripts, and so on. It defines the nature of the officers that lead the unit and what the unit is like, how it is equipped, and how it is led. It then asks what daily rations the unit is given and what its members consider to be a special treat, how they get paid, and what happens when they get hurt. If the unit has camp followers, the Game Master can define them, and if currently stationed somewhere, what its camp or fort is like. The first thirteen tables together give the Game Master prompts that when answered, help her create interesting military units, but without any stats. The process consists of rolling a few dice and asking how each element fits together to make narrative sense. The author admits that the inspiration for the entries is the European Middle Ages, but they are flexible enough to apply to other settings inspired by other periods of history or fantasy settings. What the tables do not cover is magic or the more fantastical elements of a setting. That is left up to the Game Master decide on her own, since every world is different.

What is interesting here is not just the nature of a military unit, but the fact that it exists in a world and is a creation of that world. As the author points out, “…[M]iltaries are social and political institutions.” So, who and what the unit is, what it is asked to do, and more can do something unexpected and that is ask questions and suggest ideas about the world and background to the unit. Of course, the Game Master is probably going to be adding a unit to an existing world, rather than creating a unit and building out to create a whole world, but that still leaves questions that in answering, the Game Master can make her setting more interesting and more coherent.

What is interesting here is not just the nature of a military unit, but the fact that it exists in a world and is a creation of that world. As the author points out, “…[M]iltaries are social and political institutions.” So, who and what the unit is, what it is asked to do, and more can do something unexpected and that is ask questions and suggest ideas about the world and background to the unit. Of course, the Game Master is probably going to be adding a unit to an existing world, rather than creating a unit and building out to create a whole world, but that still leaves questions that in answering, the Game Master can make her setting more interesting.

To help bring the unit to life, the fanzine has tables for random encounters and patrols so that the Player Characters can run into the unit during play. This is not the only way in which the Player Characters can run into a military unit. It can be part of a Player Character’s background and so there is a table for his military experience, who his old comrades were, what souvenir he has of his time in service, and what sort of soldier he was. Tie this into a specific unit created using the previous tables and the Player Character has even more background.

This supported by fully worked examples showing how seemingly disparate results from the tables can be worked together to create a coherent unit and suggest some story hooks. Some of them have NPC descriptions too. And again, the examples can be used as is or as inspiration for the Game Master. Plus, there is advice from start to finish on how to use the tables and interpret the results. As the author points out, the tables are much looser and less structured than in the previous Pamphlet of Pantheons: Guide to Creating Fantasy Myths and Religions, and the results thus more open to interpretation and harder to work with. The point though, is to create military units with backgrounds and cultures that whilst not necessarily weird or odd, are anything other than clichés and add to the world even before the Game Master applies numbers.

Physically, Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers is clean and tidy. It is lightly illustrated with lightly cartoonish artwork which suits the tone of the fanzine.

Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers is not quite as useful as Pamphlet of Pantheons: Guide to Creating Fantasy Myths and Religions and it is not as easy to use. It requires more input from the Game Master who has to be more inventive because more specifics have to be created. Yet just like the previous fanzine, with a few rolls of the dice, the Game Master can use Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers to develop her campaign world and help bring to life.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions

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 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. Another popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but then there are outliers, fanzines for genres, let alone roleplaying games, which you would never expect to receive support in this format.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying. Published by VX2 following a successful Kickstarter campaign, this is a product which is very different in many ways. It is a fanzine for the superhero genre, it is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying, and as superhero fanzine, it actually presents a post-apocalyptic setting. All three factors make it standout as different. As the name suggests, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is the third in the series for the fanzine, but there is only a total of four issues.

The first issue in the series, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap presented an overview of its setting. This is the future of the North American continent after society was society ripped apart in 1986 by an event known as the Shock which followed the successful attempt by the mysterious Omegas to destroy a psionic computer network powered by extradimensional energy. The resulting Aftershock killed millions, made more disappear, substituted familiar landscape with alien ones, turned the sky violet, and changed some of the stars to alien ones. Governments collapsed and supervillains seized control to establish their own, ultimately dystopic fiefdoms, together known as the Supremacy. The Shock also disrupted the Grid underlying the whole of reality and weakened it, leading to the opening of ‘Gridgates’ to other worlds and aliens visiting the Earth. Reality storms imperil travel so that long term travel in in convoys and all forms of broadcast media act as vessels for a necrocosmic plague. Only the wealthy has access to any form of direct communication, whilst messages and recorded media are delivered directly. Long distance travel is via the Thunder Road, a continental network of highways and fuel stations controlled by Lord Thunder, the leader of the Sanction.

In the world of Gridshock 20XX, the Player Characters are Vectors. They possess the ability to warp the Grid and thus reality, manipulating it in their favour. Vectors are typically human, but can also be gatecrashers from other realities or hybroids—one of the genetically engineered labour force. They are fully detailed in Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster, whilst Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is more obvious in its content. It is also different in its format, being presented in landscape rather than portrait format. The issue describes the eight regions of the North American continent. This goes from Beringia and Cascadia in the northwest all the way to Asia across the Bering Causeway, down to the Sunrise Sector on the Pacific coast, and across the North American continent. This includes The Sanction, ruled by the vainglorious Lord Thunder from his capital of Junction City (formerly Las Vegas) and the fertile region of The Orchard of the Midwest, the Exhuman-infested and near lifeless Deadside around the Great Lakes, the Supremacy-dominated New Homelands that are a battleground for Exhumans from Deadside, and the Seaboard Sector on the northeast Atlantic coast. Each includes an overall profile, three points of interest, details of its inhabitants, its interactions with the wider world, three notable individuals in the region, possible artefacts to be found there, scenes that the Player Characters might see in the region, and an explanation of how its set-up can be used in play. Some entries also include stats and further details of an important individual living region. Other than that, the issue is stat-free. Each chapter packs a lot of information into its pages, whilst leaving plenty of room for Game Master to add her own details. In addition, page numbers are listed in the sidebars that reference elsewhere in Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions and also Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 4: Reference, pointing the Game master to further details.

For example, Sunrise Sector is a corporate-dominated sector of the Supremacy with several city-sized arcologies. The population is kept quiet with diet of jazzy entertainment and sensationalist news, consisting of a mix of gossip, reports of gang violence, robot rampages, labour strikes, and so on, some of which is actually genuine. The capital is the Administrative Archipelago, whilst the worst arcology is Strawberry Heights, currently suffering rampant labour unrest and superpowered gang crime. Most Sunrisers consider the Sunrise Sector to be closed thing to living in pre-Shock civilisation, but crime, controlled by the Temple—an organised crime cult operating from Bergingia—is rife. Sunrise Sector is the leading robot manufacturer for the Supremacy and also has its own state-run superteam and stars of the reality television series, Youthquake. One member, Kid Cambrian, once a joke because all could do was breath underwater and swim fast, but now able to summon giant waves of seawater carrying prehistoric monsters he can control and remaining a member of the team by ruthlessly manipulating the voting system for the television series, is full detailed with a write-up and stats. This is a nicely done write-up—elsewhere in the description of The Sanction, Lord Thunder himself is detailed—and it would have been great to have had his teammates detailed too. The set-up highlights how society in Sunrise Sector is divided between those that fully buy into the promises that its Administrators make via the media that constantly bombards them, that a golden age is preserved, everyone is cared for, and anyone could be a star, and those resist the messages.

Physically, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is very nicely presented in swathes of blue and black. The artwork is decent, but the the format does make it awkward to use in places.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is the gazetteer for the series. At the same time as it leaves room for the Game Master to create her own content in the Gridshock setting, it does leave the reader waiting for more detail. Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is good, but it could have been double the size.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] Black Dogs Issue II

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 in the past, although as tastes change, this is no longer the case.

Black Dogs Issue II was published in February, 20218 by Daimon Games. Following on from Black Dogs Issue I, it describes itself as, “[A] dark fantasy collection of house-rules, materials, adventures, monsters, and together a toolbox to generate new content for OSR systems, and mostly for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess.” Its emphasis is on a dark, grim, medieval setting for monster hunters and mercenaries rather than horror. The setting is a fantasy version of Europe, mountainous and heavily wooded, cut through with lengthy rivers navigable by barge as well as the remains of an ancient imperial road network. It lays these details out in ‘Presenting the world’, describing in turn the lands, the woods, towns, customs and religion, and church and nobility. Most of the population adhere to Christian morals and attend nearby churches regularly. The setting described will be familiar to most, though without any specifics, so accessible in terms of feel and tone. Power is held by the nobility and the church, though the merchant class is growing in power and influence as it becomes richer whilst grip on power held by the nobility declines. Into the world step the ‘Black Dogs’ of the title. In ‘Why Black Dogs’, the author explains that they are outsiders driven by their conscience to act according to a code of conduct under which they fight demons, monsters, and particularly evil men, and in doing so protect the innocent—especially children, working commoners, and humanity in general. This gives a sense of who and what the ‘Black Dogs’ of the fanzine’s title are and presents a grim world that is nevertheless more positive than traditional Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay. Both articles have nice pointers in the margins as quick reminders for the Game Master.

‘Encumbrance and Gear’ presents rules for things that the Player Characters can buy and how they can carry them. The Encumbrance is a straightforward ‘inventory slot’ system with a  Player Character able to carry a number of items equal to the modifiers for his Strength and Constitution. Most items take a single, but heavy items can take two. The cost of items is in Silver Pieces and most weapons take up one or two slots. Weaponry has a pike and shot feel. There are not a huge number of weapons, but enough, and they include blackpowder pistols, arquebuses, and muskets. They misfire if a one is rolled on the damage die, the target’s Armour Class is reduced by one, and any musket or black powder weapon-wielder must a Saving Throw versus Dexterity, or the gunpowder horn they are carrying might explode. The other missile weapons do have the advantage of allowing wielders to take one or more shots at anyone charging them. Armour also takes up slots in a Player Character’s Inventory and differentiates between small and large shields. Overall, these are serviceable rules.

Content for the Game Master begins with ‘Rolling Dice’. It advises that the player only roll the dice when it creates positive tension, there is risk or a time pressure or conflict, and so on. The Game Master is advised to make failures interesting, describing them as something more than a miss’, suggesting that a failure becomes a ‘fail-forward’ to make the otherwise failed outcome a success with a complication, twisted outcome, or at a greater cost. It is supported by plenty of examples. ‘Campaign Spirit’ makes clear that Black Dogs is about a game of exploration, rather than saving the world or just looting treasure. The Player Characters grow through their experience of the world, rather than through other means. This is a presentation of the author’s play philosophy, primarily building it around open areas marked with situations whose exploration is player-led. Above all, the Game Master is advised to keep an open mind and to respond to the players and their characters. The advice is decent enough, but not really developed in the article.

‘Adventure Seeds’ presents some ideas generated from tables annoyingly to be found in Black Dogs Issue III. Nevertheless, the author shows how he develops the results into something from which a Game Master can improvise. In one, ‘An Old Lover’, it sets up a town which has been beset by turmoil due to a feud between the local church and Bishop and a Witch, whilst in another, ‘The Black Market’, a village whose interbreeding families have tipped it into degradation and is now filled by addicts, drunks, beggars, and vagabonds, which by night it sells their organs at a market attended by alchemists and wizards, scholars and medics, necromancers and witches. ‘Witches and Smart Zombies’ detail the primary NPCs involved in both, in particular the new monster, the ‘Smart Zombie’. Unlike traditional zombie, the ‘Smart Zombie’ is still undead, but intelligent. It is vulnerable to sunlight and needs to eat flesh regularly. Unfortunately, the antagonists for both adventure seeds are better set up and explained than the overall situations for the adventure seeds. The Game Master will likely want to develop these further if she can.

Physically, Black Dogs Issue II is clean, tidy, and well laid out. The writing is good and is an enjoyable read. The fanzine is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is decent enough, being drawn from the public domain.

Black Dogs Issue II is a fanzine of ideas and suggestions, though none of them radical, and all of them pointing towards a roleplaying game that the author wants to write—or if that is not the case, it certainly feels like it. ‘Encumbrance and Gear’ is workable and likely the most useful thing in the issue, whilst the ‘Adventure Seeds’ are disappointingly underwritten in comparison to the scenario of the previous. Both have potential, but need development upon the part of the Game Master. Truth be told, Black Dogs Issue II feels outdated, even by the standards of the Old School Renaissance.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] Carcass Crawler Issue #5

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 DM 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. Then there is also Old School Essentials.

Carcass Crawler is ‘The Official Fanzine Old-School Essentials zine’. Published by Necrotic Gnome, Old School Essentials is the retroclone based upon the version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay and published in 1981, and Carcass Crawler provides content and options for it. It is pleasingly ‘old school’ in its sensibilities, being a medley of things in its content rather than just the one thing or the one roleplaying game as has been the trend in gaming fanzines, especially with ZineQuest. To date Carcass Crawler #0, Carcass Crawler #1, Carcass Crawler Issue #2, Carcass Crawler Issue #3, and Carcass Crawler Issue #4 have all focused on providing new Classes and Races, both in ‘Race as Class’ and ‘Race and Class’ formats as well as general support for Old School Essentials.

Carcass Crawler Issue #5 follows a similar path, but provides more general, but still character-focused content. The issue includes two ‘New Character Classes’ by Brad Kerr and Gavin Norman, one new, one not so new. The new one is the ‘Ratling’. This is an anthropomorphic rat which is difficult to surprise given its strong sense of smell, has Infravision and a prehensile tale, an affinity with other rats and knows the secret language of rats. Its skills include Climb Sheer Surfaces, Detect Poison, Hear Noise, Hide in Shadows, and Move Silently. The Class is categorised as semi-martial, being similar, but not like a Thief. The second of the Classes is not new, but old, having originally appeared in Carcass Crawler #0. The Changeling Class offers the chance for a player to roleplay a Doppelgänger! The Changeling’s ‘Beguile’ skill enables the Class to speak highly persuasively in an almost Charm-like effect, at least temporarily, and with ‘Shape-Stealing’ can mimic the forms of others, unconscious or slain, an effect lasting for one Turn per Level. The counterpart to the ‘New Character Classes’ are the ‘New Character Races’ by the same authors. It should be no surprise that the Changeling has the most potential as an Assassin as well as an Illusionist or Thief, whilst the Ratling can also be an Assassin, but will also be a good Acrobat or Thief.

‘Cantrips’ by Gavin Norman does exactly what it suggests and introduces minor, Zero Level spells for Old School Essentials. They still need to be memorised, but include cantrips such as Magic Quill, Open/Close Portal, Sense Magic, and Spark. There is an optional rule and cantrip for Read Magic, making scrolls easier to read without having to give up a more powerful spell slot. The cantrips have a very Middle-earth feel, including Rune (caster traces a sigil in the air or on a surface) and Smoke Rings for the pipe-smoking Wizard!

If ‘Cantrips’ looks back to Unearthed Arcana for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, then ‘Level 0 Characters’ by Brad Kerr and Gavin Norman is nod to N4 Treasure Hunt and N5 Under Illefarn, if not the ‘Character Funnel’ beloved of Dungeon Crawl Classics from Goodman Games. Such Player Characters start with fixed Saving Throws and low Hit Points. By default, they are Humans, but an optional rule allows for Demi-Humans with their inherent abilities. There is a guide to playing ‘funnel style’ adventures which clearly acknowledges the article’s primary inspiration, Dungeon Crawl Classics. A Zero Level Player Character also has a Background, the type depending upon his starting Hit Points. A Zero Level Player Character with more Hit Points tends to be physical and have a job that requires more strength, whilst a Zero Level Player Character with less has more sedentary Background. In addition to be used for Character Funnels, these rules and tables can be used to generate Zero Level NPCs and potential hirelings and be used to create a Background for a normal, First Level Player Character prior to the start of play.

Gavin Norman’s ‘Special Materials’ looks at both weaker and enhanced materials. For the former it lists the properties of weapons and armour made of bone, bronze, stone, and similar materials, and the perils and penalties of using broken or bent weapons, as well as cost of repairs. This opens up Old School Essentials to the possibility of cultures who lack metalworking knowledge, whether at all or enough to mark the iron and steel weapons that are the baseline arms and armour. For the latter, it does the same but for weapons and armour made of adamantine, mithril, and silver. In general, the bonuses provided are not as good as magical weapons, plus they are very expensive. This is followed ‘Expanded Poisons’, also by Norman. It expands upon the nine categories of poison given in Old School Essentials by naming them and detailing their effects. It gives cost, saving throw modification, chance of detection, onset time, and effect for each one along with a description. This adds some nasty flavour, especially if the campaign involves assassins.

In ‘Magic Swords’ by Brad Kerr with Chance Dudinack, the Game Master can create all manner of magical swords with quirky abilities. For example, a wavy wooden sword with an antlered pommel with the ‘Flavour’ quirk which when used to stir food can change its flavour or a blood-grooved blade of demon horn with a twitching eye in the pommel and the quirk of ‘Gloating’, meaning that it laughs evilly in combat, reducing enemy morale! Some entertaining quirks here, enabling the Game Master to create some memorable blades—the quirks could easily be applied to other weapons as appropriate—that will enhance (or ruin) the reputations of both the Player Characters and NPCs that wield them.

Chance Dudinack’s ‘Lake & River Monsters’ details eight new monsters found in freshwater lakes, ponds, and rivers. They include the Giant Beaver, the Freshwater Hag, Grindylow (aquatic prank-playing, but cowardly gremlins), Weretoads, Mudslingers (amphibious fish that hunt by spitting mud), Shellycoat (aquatic humanoids that feed on the corpses of the drowned), Snallygaster (reptilian birds with lamprey mouths full of tentacles that suck the blood of the living), and River Trolls. They are all decently done and are accompanied by decent illustrations, In addition, they appear in the adventure that follows.

‘Up Chaos River’ by Brad Kerr and Chance Dudinack is a two-part funnel adventure designed to be played using twelve to fifteen Zero Level Player Characters. The first part ‘The River’. By Brad Kerr, it is a rivercrawl that begins in the town of Blackwater that recently held its midsummer festival, but which since has fallen under a curse as ooze from the river mutates its inhabitants, including its warriors and wizards. With no-one else to investigate, it is up to a band of townsfolk—brave or foolish enough—to paddle or punt upriver to discover the source and put a stop to the problem. There are some nasty encounters along the way, such as a blade poking up out of the water that draws boats to it to slice them in half or a man yelling for help, stranded on a toad infested island, who if rescued, turns out to be a Weretoad(!), but there are good opportunities too, such as rescuing a mermaid. There is a great variety of encounters here, so it a pity that the players and their characters will not experience them all. There are rules given for river travel and worse, for the effects of the river ooze, should a Player Character touch it.

The second part is ‘Hag’s Lair’ by Chance Dudinack. This details the lair of the creature responsible, constructed by her giant beaver minions. It is thick with mud and chewed wood and festooned with traps. It is a mucky, murky adventure that will ultimately lead to a confrontation with the villain of the piece. She is a fiercesome opponent armed with her own magical wooden spoon. However, one disappointment is that combat is the only option considered for dealing with her. It would have been good if the adventure had included options for negotiating or reasoning with her.

‘Up Chaos River’ is an entertaining adventure, though ‘The River’ is the better of the two parts, having a eerie, weird feel. It will be challenging for the Zero Level Player Characters—let alone First Level Player Characters—and any who survive will be truly seasoned. It makes good use of the monsters in ‘Lake & River Monsters’.

Physically, Carcass Crawler Issue #5 is well written and well presented. The artwork is excellent and the cartography good.

Carcass Crawler Issue #5 is an excellent issue of the fanzine. There is a nice balance between new Character options and content supporting campaigns and scenarios. All capped by a good scenario that will challenge the most experienced of players and provide two or three good sessions’ worth of play. Carcass Crawler Issue #5 is good not just for Old School Essentials, but just about any retroclone.