[Fanzine Focus XLIV] Pavic Tales Issue 1

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.

Subtitled ‘The RuneQuest Fanzine’, Pavic Tales was one of the first fanzines devoted solely to RuneQuest and Greg Stafford’s world of Glorantha. It ran for nine issues between 1987 and 1989 and bridged the gap between Chaosium, Inc.’s own RuneQuest II and RuneQuest III from Avalon Hill. A full history and index of Pavic Tales can be found here.

With Pavic Tales Issue 1, the editors promised a “…[S]uperb, well written and edited Runequest fanzine.” and stated that, “It is intended to give an endless source of ideas for you and your group to implement in your game.” Their lament was the lack of RuneQuest material available at the time (“[E]specially for Glorantha and Heroquesting”) and that RuneQuest was overlooked in roleplaying magazines. This is not an entirely unfounded point of view given both the lack of content being published by Avalon Hill at the time and its underwhelming quality. Beyond the ‘Introduction to Glorantha’ in the RuneQuest III boxed set, the Gods of Glorantha boxed set, and the ‘new’ version of Griffin Mountain that was Griffin Island, there was little content being published and not only that, by 1987, there were very few general gaming magazines on the market—Imagine from TSR Hobbies (UK) Ltd had been cancelled two years earlier and White Dwarf was a year away from making the shift away from the roleplaying hobby.  It is a view that the editors will return to later in the pages of Pavic Tales Issue 1, but in the opening remarks they make clear that their aim is to fill what they see as a gap in the market.

With no contents page, the inaugural fanzine leaps straight into the heat of combat with Jim Mozely’s ‘FIRE!’. This suggests ways to counter the players tendency to use Multimissile 4 in combination with an arbalest or Fire Arrow Thrown Rock to blast their opponents to death. These include highlighting the dangers of firing into melee combat, making arbalests unavailable unless found as treasure since Dwarves are not simply going to give them away, using shields properly to cover hit locations, and using spells on missile weapons before they are fired. Thus, Glue to fix an arrow firmly in place, Ignite to burn the crossbow, and Conceal to make it disappear—and of course, let the NPCs do this, not just the Player Characters. Most of the options are obvious, but useful, whilst the spell suggestions are amusingly inventive.

The fire theme continues with Mark Corbett’s ‘The Fire Spirit’ which tells the rise and fall of Yelm’s grandson, hatched from the womb of a volcano, who looking for mischief threw himself into the fight alongside Stormball in the fight against Chaos and quite literally at Wakboth! Disappointingly, it foreshadows ‘The Cult of the Fire Spirit’ in Pavic Tales Issue 2, and so whilst an engaging piece of backstory, the reader has to wait for the follow up!

In ‘Nysalor’s Niggles’, ‘H. Vorder.’ discusses news, rules, and more about RuneQuest III. Again he laments the lack of support from Avalon Hill and Glorantha in particular, noting that this has left Game Masters to adapt their knowledge of the setting to the new edition of the rules or clinging to old rules and unfortunately an elitist outlook.* He summarises the issues with the rules—the Previous Experience tables not being sufficiently Gloranthan, the replacement of Defence value with the Dodge skill, and the numerous chances to magic and spellcasting. The author wonders whether it is worth reconciling the issues between the two editions, given that he feels that Glorantha is dead as a setting because of the lack of support from its current publisher which is making Glorantha inaccessible and thus less popular. He concludes by saying, “With no new material likely to appear for sometime this fanzine may be the only source of of information to develope [sic] comprehensive Gloranthian campaign background, Through this column the ideas presented should become accessible to RQ’ers both old and new.”

* Does anything ever change?

‘Praxian Population Statistics’ follow which breaks down the populations of the five great tribes—Bison, Impala, High Llama, Sable, and Morokanth—and the lesser clans to give an overall population of roughly 58,000. With an area of forty thousand kilometres, this gives a population of one-and-a-half per kilometre, which it equates to rough that of central Africa. These figures would have been estimated in 1987 and of course, have been updated since with more official figures.

‘A Scroll Written in Sartarite by Hershal Sometimes Known The Shadow, a Windlord of Orlanth’ by Butch Wheeler relates an expedition and heroquest out of Pavis across Prax to a tower in the Eritha Hills protected by Zorak Zoran-worshipping Trolls and get into caverns below which border the realm of the Troll god of war and death. From there he relates how he manages to cross the River Lief without falling asleep to an island where an ancient, winged hero is imprisoned all in search of the broken parts of the staff of Issaries. It is rip-roaring stuff that reads if it was actually played out in game and lays the groundwork for a campaign that begins in the issue and will continue in subsequent issues as the Player Character searches for the five separate parts.

The highlight of Pavic Tales Issue 1 is ‘Tower of the Necromancer’, a scenario located at the eponymous site in the hills between The Paps and The Head Aches in Prax. This is a Heroquest for a strong party of Rune level Player Characters from a variety of cults. It protects the prison of the aforementioned ancient, winged hero who in times was past was tricked into fight for Zorak Zoran and if freed, the Troll god fears he will take his revenge. The tower is protected by a cadre of veteran, highly trained and fanatical Zorak Zorani who view all outsiders—including non-Zorak Zorani-worshipping Trolls—as food and who are prepared to die to protect the tower. The aim is to provide an implacable foe and nearly unbeatable forces should the Player Characters decide on a straight assault, rather than using stealth, imagination, and wits.

The tower has been slighted such that only the ground level building remain and even they are ruined, whilst below that are the quarters and defences of the Trolls along with the remnants of the former occupant’s activities—libraries, secret storerooms with too much  demonic magic, demonology work room, and more. There is no denying its dungeon-like design. Indeed, it feels not unlike Balastor’s Barracks from RuneQuest Scenario Pack 1: Balastor’s Barracks or something that Judges Guild might have published. This does not necessarily mean that it is bad, but rather that the design is old fashioned. However, the third level is where the adventure gets interesting as the Player Characters reach the cavern abutting Zorak Zoran’s realm. As ‘A Scroll Written in Sartarite by Hershal Sometimes Known The Shadow, a Windlord of Orlanth’ suggests, getting further is going to be a challenge for the Player Characters, but Fly or Teleport spells will be very useful.

If the ancient, winged hero is freed, there is the possibility that he will accept becoming the subject of a hero subcult for Orlanth and the Player Chaarcters be amongst his first worshippers, and also the possibility that the Player Characters will find one of the parts of Issaries’ staff. Well actually, they should, as it will kick off the rest of the campaign and it is the only major magical item to be found on the island. The Game Master will need to create stats for many of the monsters found in the scenario, but it does include those for the ancient, winged hero and for Densrata narl Sazdorf, 823-year old Mistress Troll and commander of the Troll forces at Necromancer’s Tower. 

‘Tower of the Necroamncer’ is old-fashioned, but it works and it does not feel out of place. If there is an issue with the scenario it is that the Player Characters will need some motivations to go searching for it. The Game Master will need to create some using the description of the tower and dungeon and the preceding scroll relating a previous attempt to get into it as inspiration.

Butch Wheeler’s ‘Dear Spugh’ has one ‘Spugh Bloodenguts’—a seven-and-a-half Minotaur Stormbull priest and Zorak Zoran associate death priest—do a questions & answers session. This is a lifestyle, agony aunt (agony Minotaur Stormbull priest?) questions & answers column, not rules or setting questions & answers column. So, it is as silly as you would expect and strays about as close as it can to tasteless as it can without being unnecessarily unpleasant.

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.

[Fanzine Focus XLIV] Börk Morgue

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. A more recent Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game that fanzines are being based upon and inspired by is Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing.

Börk Morgue Issue #666 is a fanzine for Mörk Borg, ‘An unofficial zine for a Dying World’ from GreysonWHY that contains a mix of options for both players and the Game Master. There is new arms and armour and combat options, new Powers, and new cultists and monsters as well as two new scenarios for the Game Master. The first of the two scenarios is ‘The Börk Morgue Cvlt’. The Player Characters dream of a book being consumed by flames over which stands a berobed figure with two heads beseeching them to destroy the book and free them from this reality. Until the Player Characters decide to act on this, they are doomed (as their Omen is penalised) and so they are drawn to the Valley of the Unfortunate Undead where a cult is hiding out in the forgotten town of Börk. Its headquarters are, of course, located in the Börk Morgue, and for the most part, the Börk Morgue cultists will welcome the Player Characters as they believe that the Player Characters will want to join up… Of course, the Player Characters are free to react however they want, but of course, this is a scenario for Mörk Borg, so absolutely is not going to be on the level. It is a solid enough affair with the clear layout that makes it easy to run from the page.

‘Fvcking with the Dice’ suggests ways to make the Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic of a great many contemporary fantasy roleplaying. It suggests that both Advantage and Disadvantage—as in rolling extra dice for bonuses and penalties—are too great an Advantage or Disadvantage. It suggests replacing the standard die with a larger or smaller dice as necessary, effectively a dice step mechanic in terms of bonuses and penalties, and goes so far as replacing the twenty-sided die with rolling two ten-sided dice instead to give a probably curve that flat increments. The piece is subtitled ‘a small essay that no asked for by yours truly’ and there is no denying the veracity of that claim. Ultimately this is a house rule explained and up to the Game Master whether she thinks it is a good idea and her players agree.

The house rules continue with ‘Heavy Metal Reforged’. These give cutting and impaling weapons advantage in terms of damage, but so does armour! For five times the cost, a weapon can be forged as fine and do extra damage. Blades do not break on a fumble, but can be dulled and lose any Advantage on damage, or be bent and twisted. It expands the different types of armour available, from light to extra-heavy, plus shields adding extra detail here throughout along with new weapons like the estoc, katar, and katana. A Player Character can also track down Svara the heretical blacksmith and convince her to stick some spikes on his armour. They inflict damage anyone who comes too close and is intimidating, so can influence any Moral check! This all adds detail and may come at the cost of playability. It depends on the group.

Of course, the Player Characters in Mörk Borg are going to get hurt, so the counterpart to ‘Heavy Metal Reforged’ is ‘Scars and Other Ways to Break’ adds scars and injuries to make it just a little more forgiving for them. Injuries of a different type are examined in ‘Dental Manvscript’, which perfect for the Game Master who wants dentistry in her Mörk Borg game. The teeth vary in type and effects depending upon if they are sewn, implanted, or even crushed! For example, ‘Deserter’s Fangs’, whether taken from the dead or the living, can be implanted to increase the damage of a Player Character’s bite attack or the crushed molars blown into the face an enemy to potentially give them Toothrot! This is a gruesome set of options, but perfect for Mörk Borg.

The monsters in Börk Morgue Issue #666 include the ‘Jabborgmörky’, inspired by the nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, which also introduced the vorpal blade and a version of that, the Mörkal Sword, is included too. ‘Cultists of Dying Gods’ is less interesting, a list of cultists who adhere to the worship of the old gods, many of them former inquisitors still willing to torture heretics of all sorts—cultists and non-cultists—in the name of their faith. It adds the ‘Pstress’, or ‘psychic stress’, which is gained from being tortured or suffering other trauma, including encountering something truly horrible. Fortunately, the subject of torture is treated very broadly, and it applies only to NPCs, who instead use Morale. When a Player Character accumulates Pstress six points greater than his Presence, he suffers a penalty to any action taken against the source, but a bonus to resist any more Pstress. If he gains Pstress double this value, a Player Character can suffer a heart attack, fall into a coma, and so on. Thus, what we have here is actually the equivalent of a Sanity mechanic for Mörk Borg, which unfortunately has been given a clunky name. After the details of the Pstress mechanic, there are stats for various cultists with very little detail of the cults, so actually not that useful or interesting.

The world of Mörk Borg is doomed, but what if there was a chance that it could be forestalled, if only temporarily? ‘Seven Palms for Seven Psalms’ is a strange, but friendly encounter with a seven-armed, seven-headed figure with goat’s legs who offers to play games with the players and if they win, will stop the current Misery. Slightly mocking and knowing in tone, the games are played between the player and the Game Master rather than Game Master and Player Character, and if the player wins, the Misery is definitely delayed. There is some intentional metagaming going on here between the figure and the players, and the figure may reappear later to play for another Misery. Of course, the degree of metagaming means that if the figure is not around, it will probably be enjoying the company of another group of Player Characters and playing games with them. Reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal in which a medieval knight plays Chess with Death by way of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey in terms of tone.

Other worshippers of other dead gods sometimes find their longships washed ashore on the Dying Land from across the Endless Sea. ‘The Odic Force’ adds Vikings complete with Seafaring Priests, Seafaring Marauders, and Seafaring Berserkers as well as Rune-carved tablets of power which work in a similar fashion to scrolls, but neither unclean nor sacred. A raging, pillaging encounter for the Game Master to create with some strange magical effects to loot. Of course, if the Game Master wants to run a session or two in a which the Player Characters are the raiders, then she could have them discover the world of Mörk Borg whilst running Berserkr.

Börk Morgue Issue #666 switches tone and style for its second scenario, ‘Trapped in a Mauß Borg’, which is inspired by Mausritter – Sword-and-Whiskers roleplaying and a dash feline cosmic horror. What if some mutant mice, living in a tumbledown cottage in the woods, want to be free of having to sacrifice their own to Cathulhu and beseech the Player Characters to help, promising in return that they will be treated as gods? Defeating Cthulhu is not going to be a problem, but the fun comes afterwards when the Player Characters discover that they have a cult devoted to them, that they can bless their cultists, and that some of the mice want to go on a pilgrimage with them. The mice can only communicate via an obsidian pebble, but can remember a single Omen for their gods or collectively replace it with one of their own. The resulting situation is very silly, but brings some joyous absurdity to the world of Mörk Borg.

Lastly, ‘Hand of Zauberei’ is a red and black, lacquered gauntlet for the left hand, grimy and worn, infused with the collective stenches of decay, vomit, and sulphur, ready to be found in a treasure hoard. It promises the wearer great power if fed the souls of the undead. This is the ability to reach into the spirit realm and rip out the soul of a single enemy. Of course, the ‘Hand of Zauberei’ wants souls no matter what and will take the wearer’s if it can and take control of the wearer’s body. There is a guide too, for what happens if a Player Character decides to eat a soul. As you can imagine, the results are mostly bad. This is a delightfully nasty magical item and suits the setting of Mörk Borg luring the Player Characters with great power, but at potentially a great cost.

Physically, Börk Morgue Issue #666 is presented in the Artpunk style of Mörk Borg, but not to the usual degree of being challenging to read. Otherwise, it uses publicly-sourced artwork to good effect, whilst the cartography is bland. 

Börk Morgue Issue #666 is a Mörk Borg medley. It contains some solid content for the roleplaying game including two good scenarios—one of which is actually amusing—and some interesting rules options. Some of the latter are more useful than others, for example, the contents of ‘Heavy Metal Reforged’ likely to find its way into a game than the other articles. Overall, Börk Morgue Issue #666 is worth picking up and picking over to find the best bits.

[Fanzine Focus XLIV] Cursed Scroll #2

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. A more recent Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game which right from the start of its appearance began being supported by fanzines, is ShadowDark, published by The Arcane Library. One such fanzine is Cursed Scroll. This is not only a fanzine for ShadowDark, but since it is actually published by The Arcane Library, it is the official fanzine for ShadowDark, fulfilling a similar role as Carcass Crawler does for Necrotic Gnome of Old School Essentials.

Cursed Scroll #1 carries the subtitle of ‘Shadowdark Zine Vol. 1: Diablerie!’ and created a complete mini-setting, ‘The Gloaming’, an ancient forest of black trees, moss strewn standing stones, and fog-shrouded marshes, demons which emerge from the trees, the Knights of St. Ydris who hunt the demons, and not only the Greywall Priory, but also Bittermold Keep, its stone walls long melted by the slime which bubbles up deep from under the ground from a shrine dedicated to the primordial ooze, Mugdulblub. Cursed Scroll #2 carries the subtitle of ‘ShadowDark Zine 2: Red Sands’ and continues the same format in presenting a complete mini-setting. Yet where Cursed Scroll #1 was gloopy, oozy, and acidic, Cursed Scroll #2 is dry, dusty, and burns hot. It features ‘The Djurum’, a shimmering desert lying between red mountains crossed by merchant caravans hoping to avoid the bandits that ride out of the mountain valleys, the skin-blistering sandstorms, and death from above by The Scourge, a Blue Dragon cursed and tortured by the evil spirit it swallowed, always accompanied by blue lightning and thunderclouds. Deep in the mountains is the secret, ancient monastery where the infamous Ras-Godai assassins train under a half-demon, whilst the Howling Caves hide the Iron Fortress, a Duergar mine long captured by the Efreeti where the princeling sons of the Efreeti lord compete for their father’s attention.

Cursed Scroll #2 was published in October, 2022 and includes a hexcrawl covering an area of seventeen by eleven hexes, thirty-four by twenty-two miles, roughly seven-hundred-and-fifty square miles. It has tables for rumours and encounters and in ‘The Djurum Hex Key’, gives detailed descriptions of twenty-two locations across the region. These include ‘Shar Oasis’, the likely destination for any travellers across the region, famous for its Thraxis Arena where crowds gather nightly to bet, drink, and fight as gladiators battle below them; a ruined fortress, blasted and bent, home only to twenty ghosts of former guards who materialise only to curse The Scourge for their deaths and only the death of The Scourge can end their torment; and Worm Trench is the spawning grounds for pregnant Purple Worms which gather in the thirty foot deep, one hundred foot long trench filled with webs and nests.

The three new Classes in the issue include the ‘Desert Rider’, which can Charge three times daily for double damage and is bonded to a mount (camel or horse) and gains an Armour Class bonus when riding it; the ‘Pit Fighter’ can regain Hit Points when hitting an enemy with a ‘Flourish’, has Advantage on Constitution checks to resist injury, poison, and extreme environments, and when reduced to zero Hit Points, can make a Constitution check to recover at one Hit Point; and the ‘Ras-Godai’ is an assassin that can inflict double damage to surprised opponents, teleport withing sight as if a puff of smoke, and after eating the petals of the Black Lotus flower, gains random abilities such as being able to temporarily paralyse a target, walk on water, or appear invisible to a single target. Of the three, the ‘Pit Fighter’ focuses heavily on recovery, whilst the ‘Ras-Godai’ is a fighter with semi-magical abilities.

It adds new weapons such as the blowgun, bolas, razor chain, shuriken, and whip, the bolas and the whip allowing the wilder to perform a ranged attack. There is a list of new poisons and rules for mounts, which pleasingly includes a list of possible personalities for the mounts. ‘Pit Fighting’ sets up venues for the Pit Fighter Class to perform in, with stakes set at low, mid, high, or epic to determine the nature of the foe faced and the rewards to the winner, and a possible twist to add a surprise to the fight. ‘Thraxis Arena’ at Shar Oasis is given page of description and comes with a table to determine the mood of the crowd, such as ruthless, bored, or awed. ‘Enduring Wounds’ applies extra effects for suffering severe injuries, such as a heart attack, torn muscle, or staggered. Overall, there is a brawny brutality to the rules combined with the strange unreality of the smoke-like assassins.

Supported by rules for ‘Travel in the Sands’, which heavily accounts for the wind and the heat, the ‘The Djurum Hex Key’ details various locations across the desert. There is plenty of strangeness as well as people simply trying to get by. For example, the ‘Hamad Camp’ is home to two hundred desert-dwellers who live around a natural spring and hunt and tame wild scrag lizards. They fear the sorcerer of the Saltstone Tower as the cause of the foul water, illness, and stillbirths they have suffered recently, but its leaders cannot agree on what they should do. There is more going on here, including the eldest son of one of the leaders having gone missing, but the Game Master will need to develop this site and others further to make it playable.

The bestiary is quite short, the most notable entry being the description of The Scourge. The adventure in the issue is the ‘Fortress of the Burning Brothers’. Designed for Fourth to Sixth Level Player Characters, this details a former duergar mining stronghold located in a cathedral cavern deep inside the Howling Caves built across broiling orange rivers of magma that cast a light over the whole area! There are rumours which will drive the Player Characters to climb down to reach it and what they will find is a fortress commanded by rival Efreeti brothers and manned by Salamander guards. There are some nice details that bring out the brothers’ rivalry, such as the broken iron golem with hollow eye sockets which needs a pair of magical ruby eyes to power it. One brother has found the rubies, but does not know how to use them, whilst the other knows how to use them, does not know where they are, and when he has them, wants to use the iron golem to arrange an accident for his brother! There is a mine below the fortress where Efreetis’ Duergar slaves still labour, refining ore in readiness for transport to the famed City of Brass (a nod to the classic location in Dungeons & Dragons on the plane of fire). Both levels are pleasingly details, the inclusion of a list of personalities for the Salamander guards and the Duergar workers is a really nice touch.

As decently done as the set-up of rival princeling factions in ‘Fortress of the Burning Brothers’ is, the problem with the scenario is how to use it. Or rather how to connect to the surface world such that the Player Characters would have cause to want to search for its hidden location. Without the impetus or motivation for this, the location feels separate to ‘The Djurum Hex Key’ above.

Physically, Cursed Scroll #2 adheres to the style of ShadowDark. Thus, it is clean, tidy, and laid out. The illustrations and cartography are also good.

Much like the previous issue, Cursed Scroll #2 is intended to be a complete package, a mini-supplement all of its very own, and it contains a good mix of content is playable and needs some development. However, it does not feel as complete a package as Cursed Scroll #1 did and the two halves—the hexcrawl and the dungeon—work better on their own rather than together. All that makes either half easier to add to a Game Master’s own campaign, she will still need to create content of her own to make them a whole.

[Fanzine Focus XLIV] Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 14

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, such as Crawl! and Crawling Under a Broken Moon. Some of these fanzines provide fantasy support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but others explore other genres for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One such fanzine is the aforementioned Crawling Under A Broken Moon.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 14 was published in in August, 2016 by Shield of Faith Studios. It continued the detailing of post-apocalyptic setting of Umerica and Urth which had begun in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 1, and would be continued in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 2, which added further Classes, monsters, and weapons, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 3, which provided the means to create Player Characters and gave them a Character Funnel to play, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 4, which detailed several Patrons for the setting, whilst Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 5 explored one of the inspirations for the setting and fanzine, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 6 continued that trend with another inspiration, Mad Max. Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 7 continued the technical and vehicular themes of the previous issue, whilst also detailing a major metropolis of the setting. Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 8 and Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 9 were both a marked change in terms of content and style, together presenting an A to Z for the post-apocalyptic setting of Umerica and Urth. Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 10 switched back to more traditional content by focusing on monsters, whilst Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 11 examined some of the gods and patrons of Umerica and Urth. Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine No. #12 continued the humour of the setting by presenting the dark face of Buddy O’Burger, whilst Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 13 focused on adventures and monsters..

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue No. 14 is less focused, but it goes big—really big! So big, it needs the pages of Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 15 to actually be complete. As the editor puts it, the issue can only be summed up with one word—“DINOTASTIC!!!!”. The issue takes the whole of what was once New Mexico and slaps it under a bright green dome and under that dome, it shoves the whole of Jurassic Park! Standing five miles high and two hundred miles in diameter, ‘The Mysterious Glowing Dome’ presents a huge prehistoric theme park gone to seed and haywire as a ‘semi-hex crawl’. This is a combination of hexcrawl with content and encounters already included and empty hexes that have been left up to the Judge to fill, and to that end, the article includes a set of ‘Random Hex Tables’ for creating interesting features, such as buildings, hazards, inhabitants, and resources. Sub-tables enable the Judge to create the details of chemical leaks, mutagenic exposure, park vehicles, and more. The rest of the article describes the details of some thirty-three hexes. For example, Hex #102 contains the overgrown ruins of a hotel and entertainment complex connected by a mix of wide, paved streets and broken down electric trolley cars, where there is a small chance of finding still useful mechanical parts and a single, very well hidden Saurian lookout tower, which has a chance of being manned with guards, whilst in Hex #112 is ‘Kidz Fun Land’, a once-family friendly attraction near the main gate that was previously a petting zoo for docile stunted dinosaurs, but is now ruled over murderous feral-children, who remain oddly youthful and have strange powers and who lay deadly traps for intruders. There is a mix of broad detail and specifics here, that the Judge can develop in addition to the spaces where she can add her own content.

All of this is backed up with a dozen rumours and descriptions of the park’s three factions—the Dinosaurs, the Scale Empire, and the Once-Men. ‘The Mysterious Glowing Dome’ focus on the first two, saving the third and latter for the next issue. The dinosaurs are a mix of what it calls ‘Purebreed’ dinosaurs and dinosaur aberrations as you would expect in a post-apocalyptic future like that described in the fanzine and The Umerican Survival Guide – Core Setting Guide. The Scale Empire is an empire of Saurians, intelligent humanoid descendants of several species of dinosaurs whose ancestors were subject to gene modification experiments conducted by the park. There are three ‘Saurian Character Classes of the Scale Empire. The ‘Sorceraptor’ is a Lawful caster of unpredictable magic able to imbue his magic claw with even magic energy; the Sky-Sneak is rash, if daring acrobat with bat-like wings, keen-eyed, and capable of feats of trickery including bombardment, sneaking, and backstabbing; and a Battle Chanter is a large, solid herbivore whose bellowing can penalise enemies or give bonus or Rhythm Effects such as ‘Quick-Foot’ or ‘Droning Chant’ that reduces the enemies’ Action die by one step! The Battle Chanter is the Saurian equivalent of a Bard and its Rhythm Effects come in three tiers.

The three Scale Empire Classes are a means to create NPCs and if necessary, a means to provide a source of new Player Characters, whilst ‘The Mysterious Glowing Dome’ could form the basis of any number of campaigns. Player Characters could be dumped into it without having any aware of where they are, they could grow up there with no idea of the outside a la Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship, or be visitors from the outside world, the default set-up given for the setting.

The setting is filly supported in ‘Twisted Menagerie’, the bestiary for Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 13 provides solid support for the Umerica and Urth. The scenario is serviceable and more traditional in its treatment of its post apocalypse, than the satire and tastelessness of the previous issue. Of course, the content (though its tone may not) will work with other post apocalyptic roleplaying games and not just the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game or Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic.. These include ‘Once-Men’, the descendants of the park staff and patrons caught in the interdimensional storm that ripped the park from its original home dimension. They are mostly peaceful, idolize the images of the normal humans that still survive within the park, and have their own special mental powers. They are followed by stats for ‘Purebreed Dinosaurs’ and ‘Dinosaur Aberrations’, the latter are just Purebreed Dinosaurs, but with energy cannons, multi-lens eyes, and reinforced skeletons. Lastly, ‘Proto-Saurians’ are the evolutionary ancestors to the Saurians of the Scale Empire that can be domesticated as violent shock troops.

Physically, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 14 is as serviceably presented and as a little rough around the edges as the other fanzines in the line. Of course, the problem with Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 14 is that much of its contents have been represented to a more professional standard in the pages of The Umerican Survival Guide – Core Setting Guide, so it has been superseded by a cleaner, slicker presentation of the material.

Although not fully complete, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 14 packs a lot of gaming content in its pages. The ‘Jurassic park’ setting of ‘The Mysterious Glowing Dome’ delivers all of the gaming potential in thirty pages that the similar The Valley Out of Time fanzine arduously worked to avoid for a whole six issues! It has content that that Judge can use right now, but with room aplenty for her to add her own, and the content can also used in multiple different roleplaying games, not just the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game or Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic.

Island at the Top of the World

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a Secret War against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Chtulhu 2d20: Operation Cold Threshold is a scenario that takes Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 back to North America, but not the Mid-West USA of Achtung! Cthulhu Mission: Seventh-Inning Slaughter! or the ice cold of British Columbia, Canada of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Snowstorm. Instead, it takes the Agents out into the Bering Sea in winter, more than a year before the USA joined the war effort and two years before the establishment of Majestic. It is March 1940 and from intercepted radio transmissions, Section M has learned that Nachtwölfe has dispatched a secret expedition ferried board a disguised Russian trawler, the Yalina, into US territorial waters where it has anchored off an uncharted island known as Threshold in the US territorial waters of the Bering Strait. In response, British government has informed its US counterpart and very quickly, the two governments have agreed to launch a joint Anglo-US mission to investigate and interdict the Nazi expedition. This is before the US government establishes Majestic as its counterpart to Section M, so it recruits the soldiers and experts that Professor Richard Deadman, one of the key figures in the future operations of Majestic, perhaps supported by Section M operatives who have already had experience with Nachtwölfe, the Mythos, and the Secret War.

Achtung! Chtulhu 2d20: Operation Cold Threshold is not a complex scenario. It is a simple matter of climbing onto the island from the other side to the site of the Nachtwölfe expedition, traveling across the top, observing the expedition’s activities, taking images using the assigned experimental cameras, and deciding what to do. There are a couple of wrinkles along the way, such as the weather and a potentially nosy polar bear, but as the Agents film the site, it is obvious that whatever it is that Nachtwölfe is doing on the island, is going to come to fruition soon! It is up to the players and their Agents to decide how they react to that, whether that is scouting the site and the trawler out, or going in all guns blazing. Whatever they decide to do, the mission is going to end in a big fight—though the Agents will have no idea how big—because after all, Achtung! Cthulhu is a roleplaying game of shooting and punching Nazis, let alone blasting the Mythos. Stealth is the better option, since it enables the Agents to learn more, perhaps gain some allies, find the documentation they have been assigned to look for, and perhaps even capture one or two of the enemy. Either way, the way, the scenario will climax with a fight that is both silly and actually makes sense in terms of the Secret War. Plus, there is scope for another faction from the Secret War to join in the fracas if the Game Master wants to complicate things and that also makes sense.

The scenario is solidly supported with stats for all of the Nachtwölfe (and other) enemies, including the quite odd expedition leader, Professor Tedrich Sauber, and the thing that he is after. There are maps for both the island and the expedition site, but no image of the thing that Professor Tedrich Sauber is searching for—and that is pity, because it does deserve to be illustrated. There are no pre-generated Agents either.

Where Achtung! Chtulhu 2d20: Operation Cold Threshold has the potential to be a little more sophisticated is when the Game Master decides to set it. By default, the scenario takes in 1940, early in the war when the USA was not yet involved. In terms of the Secret War, the scenario takes place mostly after the events of Shadows of Atlantis, yet before A Quick Trip to France and subsequent missions. This limits when the scenario can be run as part of a campaign, as does the fact that it requires more experienced Agents. One way in which it can be used is as a side mission that serves as an introduction to the Secret Wars for American Agents, potentially recruits to Majestic in a few months’ time.

Physically, Achtung! Chtulhu 2d20: Operation Cold Threshold is well presented. The area maps are serviceable, but otherwise, the scenario is not illustrated.

Achtung! Chtulhu 2d20: Operation Cold Threshold is a simple affair that can be run as a one-shot or a side mission—perhaps when not every player can attend a session—that will play out in a single session. Although it is set up as a classic Commando-raid-style mission, there are some some pleasing little nuances to it that make it a bit more interesting than the gun toting, spell blasting, Nazi-punching shootout that it is. Plus it has a really surprisingly big bad (one that you really really wish had been illustrated.)

[Free RPG Day 2026] Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

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What is it?
The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview is the preview of, and quick-start for, the fantasy version of Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game. Published by CoolMiniOrNot and Guillotine Games, Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying is the roleplaying adaptation of Zombicide: Black Plague, the medieval adaptation of the board game of Zombicide, 2nd Edition, which of course, is given its own roleplaying game with Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game.

The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview is a twenty-eight page, full colour booklet.

How long will it take to play?
The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview includes the scenario, ‘Night Hunt’, which can be played through in a single hour.

What else do you need to play?
The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview needs at least twelve six-sided dice per player.

Who do you play?
The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview includes five pre-generated Player Characters. The consist of a Hedge Witch, Executioner, Pilgrim, Zealot, and Town Guard.

How is a Player Character defined?

A Player Character in Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying is defined by his Attributes, Proficiencies, and Actions. Attributes and Proficiencies are rated between one and three and laid out on a grid with Attributes along the top and the Proficiencies listed down the side. The three Attributes are Muscle, Brains, and Grit, and Proficiencies, whilst the Proficiencies consist of Athletics, Combat, Magic, Perception, Survival, and Wit. In play, the Proficiencies are cross-referenced with the Attributes to give an Action, for example, cross-reference Magic and Muscle gives the Sense Action; Magic and Brains the Cast Action; and Magic and Guts the Ward Action.

A Survivor also has three Talents across three Tiers, though initially, he only has access to the Tier One Talent. During play, if he inflicts a critical strike or loses any Hit Points, he will increase his Fervour, representing the increasing intensity of the situation, and gain access to the Tier Two and Three Talents.

How do the mechanics work?

Mechanically, Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying is simple. A player cross-references a Proficiency with an Attribute to give an Action, the combination of values for the Proficiency and the Attribute give the number of dice to be rolled for the Action. This generates a base dice pool which ranges in size from two to six dice, but to this can be added bonus dice for the right equipment, support from allies, and the situation. Penalties such as being impaired, suffering from fatigue, or facing NPC opposition can reduce the number of dice a player has to roll. A roll of one is always a failure, but any roll of six is counted as a Success with one Success counted as an ordinary success, two Successes as a superior success, and three Successes as an outstanding success. If an Action is favoured, rolls of five also count as Successes. A player can choose to force a success by converting any results of five into sixes and Successes. This inflicts Strain on the Player Character and if done too often, leads to fatigue and a reduced number dice he rolls in a dice pool (though not in combat as adrenaline kicks in).

How does combat work?

Initiative in Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying uses its Initiative Cards, but for the Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview, the Game Master must construct a deck from an ordinary deck of playing cards. Otherwise, combat uses the same mechanics, with only one success needed to hit and weapons inflicting a fixed amount of damage. Combat consists of ‘Opening Shots’ of ranged combat, followed by proper Combat Rounds of melee combat. Zombies are attacked in speed order, from the slowest to the fastest, unless the Survivor takes the Aim move. Damage needs to be enough to kill a zombie in one go, or not at all, and some of the zombies, like the Abomination, can withstand more damage than most weapons can inflict. In this instance, the Survivors need to master their weapons with the right Skills. Zombies attack and automatically do damage in the Combat Rounds with the Game Master not needing to roll. Armour provides protection, but can be damaged. Another option is that the Survivors can take the Evade move.

Most zombies have a Toughness of one and can be dispatched with a single hit, so if a player rolls multiple hits, his Survivor can destroy multiple zombies. Others though, have a Toughness of two and a Survivor must inflict two hits in one go to destroy them. Stronger Adversaries have both Toughness and Hit Points and will need to be hit multiple times to destroy them.

How does magic work?

Two Survivors can cast spells. One has access to a Fire Bolt scroll, the other to a Fireball scroll. It is not clear whether these are single use only or if they ned to be held to cast from, though the artwork depicts both casting magic without needing to use their scrolls directly. There is no discussion of magic in the Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview.

What do you play?

The world of Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying is one of the Old Kingdom brought low by Necromancers who raised undead hordes from cursed graves and corrupted the lands. Long deserted bar the crunch of zombies staggering, grasping, and searching for prey with bloodshot eyes, the Survivors scavenge what the dead left behind and the zombies impede access to. With no labourers and no farmers, a new threat has arisen—famine, and at the start of ‘Night Hunt’, the scenario included in the Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview, the Survivors are hungry and looking for food. When they come to the rescue of a farmer, she reveals she knows the whereabouts of a cache of food hidden away to avoid paying taxes on it. However, before they can carry it out of the nearby forest, the Survivors must defeat a horde of zombies and a giant-zombie-owl-abomination! It can have up to two attacks per round and is a fearsome opponent.

However, as much as ‘Night Hunt’ is action-orientated, it is short and will completed in an hour. If the Game Master has access to the scenario, Death Out of the Stars, she can possibly combine the two for a longer session.

Is there anything missing?
Yes. The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview does not have any rules for fear which would seem necessary for a horror roleplaying game, and really needed a discussion of magic as it pertains to two of the Survivors.

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview is easy to grasp and prepare.

Is it worth it?
Maybe. The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview includes everything for a very quick demonstration, but anyone wanting more of an experience beyond combat or a chance to explore the setting will be disappointed. For an hour, the Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview is fun, but it is all combat and no world.

The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview is published by EDGE Studio.

Ours is the Anarchy

It is the Year of our Lord 1376. England is a land of unrest. The Great Mortality—the Black Death—has swept the country twice in the last three decades and now half of her people are dead. With half of the labourers and serfs who worked the land also dead, labour is much in demand and wages have risen, enriching the working man and so giving him the possibility of improving his life and that of his family. In response, the authorities have passed laws that fix wages at pre-plague rates and made it a crime to refuse work or break a contract, imposing fines and even branding and imprisonment should such laws be broken, in practice applying it to the labourer rather than the labourer and the employer. Sumptuary laws have even been passed to regulate the goods that the increasingly wealthier labourer can consume! In France, King Edward III continues to press his claim to the French throne, but as the French conduct cross-Channel commerce raids, the war is becoming increasingly more expensive maintain, Parliament levying poll taxes upon every adult in the country more than once and sending commissioners from one County to the next in search of those who refuse to pay. In London, the city’s populace resent the presence of foreigners, Flemish weavers in particular, and loath John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, for his support of the religious reformer John Wycliffe, whom they regarded as a heretic, and this will continue upon the death of King Edward III in 1376 and the accession of his grandson, Richard II. The new king is only ten years old and John of Gaunt will go on to serve as his regent for many years. The infamous Peasants’ Revolt led by Wat Tyler is five years away, yet England buckles under the authority of the Crown, the Church, and the Nobility and there are many ready to throw off the shackles of oppression and their desperate despair, to rise up and make England theirs. And when they do, when they drive off their feudal lords and officers of the King, their land is theirs, their land is ‘The Anarchy’.

This is the backdrop to Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG, published following a successful Kickstarter campaign by Three Sail Studios—whose previous roleplaying game was the joyous Mappa Mundi. Taking its name from the road junction where a set of gallows once stood in the old County of Essex where the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 rose, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is a storytelling game of struggle, hope, and community. Of struggle against the adversity of the environment and the enmity of authority, of hope for better future, and in connecting a community having the strength to survive. The players takes the roles of peasantry, tradespersons, and even the intelligentsia, natives to one of the counties of England, confronting the rich and the powerful, bettering the community, attempting to improve their Influence whilst reducing the Control that the authorities hold over the countries, and in the process acquiring retinues and retainers, and from their humble beginnings in a single hundred in one County, the Player Characters will travel to neighbouring hundreds and work to liberate them in a Point-Crawl keyed to themes based on verbs.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG, an alternative history roleplaying game, but one which does not ignore the grim realities of history. This means that violence against people and animals, arbitrary punishment, torture and execution, conflict at any and all levels of society, slavery and serfdom, refugee displacement, and sexual violence as a weapon are all part of the realities of the period. Whilst they are part of the setting for Gallows Corner, they are not the focus of it. Where they do factor, it should be as actions or the consequences of actions of the authorities, yet further signs—as if needed—of how little the authorities value the ordinary man or woman, let alone the Player Characters. However, Gallows Corner suggests setting boundaries (or Veils) during Session Zero and having any contentious issues happen off camera and make use of a stop sign (or X Card) in play).

A Player Character has three Experiences—Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual, but at the core of a Player Character is a Trade and a Job. Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG categories its forty-eight Jobs across eight Trades. ‘The Body’ represents those who work their muscles to earn their bread; ‘The Earth’ is made up of those who till the soil, grow the food, and tend to the animals; ‘The Flesh’ consists of those who see the inner workings of bodies and know exactly where to cut, either to kill or to cure; ‘The Hood’ are made up of those who work from the shadows; ‘The Market’ is where deals are made, goods are traded, and coin is earned; ‘The Masque’ is worn by performers and entertainers; ‘The Mind’ involves the learned and the clever; and ‘The Stranger’ is home to outlier, those that survive on the edge of society, often doing the unpleasant jobs that no-one else will. With Jobs such as Servant, Herbalist, Barber-Surgeon, Smuggler, Merchant, Minstrel, Scribe, and Gravedigger there is a distinct hint of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay to the options. Even the Rat-catcher is depicted with a small, vicious dog! However, there is a grimmer tone to Gallows Corner with inclusion of Jobs such as Sex Worker, Marshman, Dung Farmer, and Sin-Eater.

Each Job has four skills. For example, the Rat Catcher has the skills of ‘Cunning’, ‘Good with Traps’, ‘Knows Poisons’, and ‘Terrier Companion’, whilst the Butcher has ‘Anatomy’, ‘Cause of Death’, ‘Precision Cuts’, and ‘Tools of the Trade’. Each represents knowledge or an ability that a Player Character has learned and instinctively understands. Each encompasses only a small area of expertise, but they are open to interpretation and if the Narrator agrees with a suggested interpretation, then that is how they work. In general, they allow a Player Character to undertake a relevant action without the need to roll any dice for a Test, though the Narrator may sometimes state that a Test is required.

To create a character, a player assigns a single eight-sided die to one of his Traits, either Physical, Emotional, or Intellectual. A single six-sided die is assigned to the other two and then also to the character’s Trade and Job. He picks a single skill from the four listed for the Job. The die size for all of a Player Character’s Traits, Trade, and Job can all be increased with experience, but instead of a die increase, a player can pick another Skill. Player Character creation is quick and simple.

Name: Hugo Brackenridge
Trade: Mind d6
Job: Lawyer d6

EXPERIENCES
Physical d6 Emotional d6 Intellectual d8

SKILLS
Good in an Argument

Mechanically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG uses a dice pool system. When a player wants his character to act and pass a Test, he forms a dice pool starting with one or more of his character’s Experiences and then adding dice for his Trade and his Job, if appropriate. A result of five or more is counted as a success, four or less a failure, and only a single success is required for the Player Character to succeed. Another Player Character can help. This can be to increase the size of the Experience die that the player making the Test is going to be rolling or if appropriate, add a Trade or Job die to his dice pool. Gallows Corner advises the player to advocate for as many dice as he can to form the pool, but since the roleplaying game is narrative-led, a player and his character should ideally rely upon roleplaying and Skills rather than attempting Tests.

The size of a die can also go down as well as up. This may be due to injury or illness and if it falls to a four-sided die, it means that the Player Character cannot succeed with that die and its associated Experience, Trade, or Job, because the minimum needed for a success is five. If the Player Character is solely relying upon that die for a Test, then he is in trouble. In such cases, the player should definitely be trying to increase the size of the dice pool, whether that is trying to use his character’s other Experiences and Trade and Job, along with help from his character’s Retinue and other Player Characters.

The players as a group can also spend ‘Opportunities’ to alter the world around or give an order to members of their Retinue. This might be to send a member of their retinue to scout out a village, to wait in ambush ready to strike at an enemy, or to gather resources or craftsmen to reinforce their camp or improve their community, but they can also be spent to allow a player to bring their character’s Job into play once again.

Combat is quick and deadly. It is played out as a series of opposed Physical Experience rolls, each combatant attempting to reduce his opponent’s condition from ‘Standing’ to ‘Knocked Back’ to ‘Down’, and then ‘Retreating’. This also applies an increasing penalty to the roll. The victor always chooses the outcome, but can also improve his own condition, aid an ally, kill or capture an enemy, and so on.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG also advises that a player rely upon his own abilities as much as those of his character, since he will be more aware of the world rather than the character, that collaboration is the key to success, death is likely and combat to be avoided—most of the time, and that they should embrace failure.

Chronologically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is played out over a series of Seasons and Scenes with Clocks being used to track something that the Player Characters are struggling against, such as being hunted by a local Sheriff's soldiery, attempting to erect fortifications in a hurry, and so on. By undertaking acts of liberation and challenging the power of the state such as writing and spreading mocking songs, disrupting the activities of tax collectors, and even burning the manors of the landed classes, each Player Character garners ‘Influence’, a combination of their fame and notoriety that enables them to do greater and bigger things as it grows. As it rises from zero and ‘Unknown’, all the way up through ‘Spoken Of’, ‘Recognisable’, ‘Well Known’, and ‘Notorious’ to ‘Famous’ and one hundred, a Player Character gains Benefits that can be used once per season, whilst the Narrator gains Detriments or negative events that she can bring into play once per season. For example, a Player Character who has an Influence of ten or more is ‘Spoken Of’ and gains the Benefit that because rumours of his good name are beginning to spread and people are willing to help him, he can turn a failed Test to influence an NPC into a success instead. However, the Narrator can select an NPC known to the Player Character who rejects his radical ideas out of fear for his safety. A Player Character’s Influence can also fall due to failure or defeat.

In addition, the Benefit gained at each rank of Influence, a Player Character can recruit a Retainer to his Retinue, up to a total of five. Each Retainer is an NPC in his own right and created just like a Player Character. Once a Retainer is part of a Retinue, a player and his character gains access to his Experiences, Trade, and Job as well as his skills and in combat, a Retainer contributes his Physical die to the Player Character. Retainers can also be sent off on missions, though this costs ‘Opportunities’ to do so, with the outcome determined by a Test after two or more scenes. There is some scope for troupe-style play here and a player is free to roleplay a Retainer as necessary. However, a Retainer is always a secondary character to a player’s main or perspective character. Should a Player Character die, he can be replaced by a Retainer. Thus, a Player Character’s Retinue is not just a source of replacement characters, but also an extension of his physical capabilities and knowledge.

Whilst each Player Character has his own Influence, they are combined together as the party’s Collective Influence. It is this value that is measured against ‘Control’, which represents the power and domination that the state—the crown, the nobility, and the church—holds over the immediate County or Region and ultimately, over all of England. If the Player Characters’ ‘Collective Influence’ is increased above the ‘Control’ for a County or Region, a Showdown can be staged. This is a significant and ideally cinematic confrontation with the leading antagonist for the County or Region. Now the text suggests that ‘Control’ might be reduced by a single point for writing and spreading mocking songs about the local sheriff, two points for skirmishing soldiers, and four points for attacking and burning manorial holdings, but there is not a useful list that the Narrator can easily reference. Whilst this does allow a Narrator a lot of flexibility, arguably it is too much and some guidance could and should have been included.

Chronologically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is played out as a ‘Point Crawl’ that scales up from the Hundreds and Liberties which make up each County, and then the Counties that make up a Region, and the Regions which make up England. Each Hundred, Liberty, County, and Region is a Point, a location where there is a problem or situation to resolve and several scenes will play out as the Player Characters attempt to resolve it. The ‘Point Crawl’ is set up by the Narrator. The Narrator selects a County and determines its degree of ‘Control’, based on the number of Hundreds and Liberties plus a die roll for NPC antagonist in charge, and then assigns a single ‘Verb’ to each of the County’s Hundreds. For example, ‘Destroy’, ‘Entertain’, ‘Fight’, ‘Grow’, ‘Organise’, ‘Play’, ‘Sin’, and ‘Steal’. These are prompts around which the Narrator can set up a situation or storyline and they can come from the players—indicating what type of stories they want to tell in playing Gallows Corner, chosen by the Narrator, or selected from the suggestions given and developed in the rulebook as potential related scenes. A Clock is also set up which tracks the reactions of the authorities to the Player Characters’ rebellious activities.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG includes descriptions of London and of the thirty-nine counties of England in the late fourteenth century. London and its districts are given more detail, whereas the counties receive a page each. This gives a broad overview and feel for the county along with an encounter that the Narrator can develop into something more and one or more reasons why the peoples of that county might want to revolt. Each region is also given a scenario for a total of eight. There is an NPC generator which can also be used to create potential Retainers as well as antagonists.

The Narrator will need to download the forms for the different Region and Counties she plans to use. These are not in the core rulebook itself, but it would have been nice if the boxed set for Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG had included them, perhaps in a forms booklet that would also be available separately.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG makes clear that the Player Characters are both custodians and victims of England and working towards becoming more of the former and away from the latter. That ‘Point Crawl’ is a way to explore England starting from the very small and local and scaling up, with the surrounding villages, towns, and counties reacting in response to the actions of the Player Characters, but also having their own stories going on. The advice suggests that the Narrator should not get too bogged down in the historical details of the period, since the roleplaying game is intended to be an alternate history. There is some detail in the London and County descriptions and there is a section describing the English which includes details of various NPC types by class, but nevertheless, Gallows Corner is a roleplaying game that will benefit from some historical research if just to add a degree of verisimilitude.

Physically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is a stunning looking book. It is easy to read, and as good as the production values are, what shines is its artwork. It is brutally bright and beautiful in its depiction of the hope and hardship of the setting.

Unfortunately, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG does not feel quite complete as a roleplaying game. There could have been clearer and fuller examples of set-up and play and the guidance on handling certain aspects of the roleplaying game, such as the reductions in ‘Control’ for certain actions by the Player Characters, that would have made the roleplaying game easier to grasp and easier to run, could have been given. Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is not a complex roleplaying game by any means and anyone with any storytelling game experience will have no problems either running it or playing it. Anyone with less experience, perhaps attracted by the high production values of the roleplaying game, may have more of a problem. Overall, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is just underwritten enough in places to make it not quite as accessible as it should be.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is magnificently ambitious in its scope and parochially English in its setting and tone. This is a gloriously brutal, beautiful roleplaying game that with the right Narrator and players is going to tell a great campaign of hardship and hope.