[Fanzine Focus XLIV] The Beholder Issue 9

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. 9 was published in November 1979. After the editorial page, mostly administrative in nature this issue, the first article is ‘Games Day V’. This is a report on the event which took place on Saturday, October, 20th 1979 at the Royal Horticultural Hall and provides a snapshot of the hobby’s public events in its early days. There were demonstration games on PET mini-computers, including being able to explore a dungeon (which is described as pretty dull) and play a Star Wars game (popular); the ‘D&D Comp’ was a quiz followed by a speedy mini-dungeon, the prize being a copy of the then new Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, signed by E. Gary Gygax; and oddly, a Frisbee demonstration (this was during the Frisbee craze of the time) as well as Tiddlywinks games! Events like Games Day showcased the hobby and show how much Games Workshop built the hobby back in the day.

Keith Andrews’ ‘Quest Dungeon’ is the first of two adventures in the issue. It states that it is not a fully fledged dungeon, but rather intended to be added to a larger complex as a quest location. Designed for six First Level Player Characters, the quest is for them to retrieve a staff belonging to the Thor-worshipping Patriarch Galberra which has been stolen. The staff is located in a dungeon, two miles northwest of the temple. The dungeon is terrible—linear, random, and the prefect example of a zoo-style dungeon. It opens with a cavern with winged goblins, followed by a trap room of two statues staring at each other which animate and attack if the Player Characters if the statues’ eyeline is broken, then a corridor of changing colours that heals the Player Characters, and so on. The last encounter includes a scene of torture and none of this makes sense because there is no explanation as to why the staff was stolen. A terrible dungeon to run in an afternoon and definitely not a good one to add to a larger complex.

Surprisingly, there are two reviews sections in The Beholder Issue No. 9. One is a very positive one-page review of Starfleet Battles. This was ‘Task Force Game #4’, the pocket or microgame version published in 1979 in by Task Force Games before the Starfleet Battles Designer’s Edition was released the same year. The reviewer prefaced the review by stating, “I consider this to be the best non-roleplaying game for a very long time, so this review may be slightly biased!” He described the game as being highly realistic, with the outcome of games being determined by player choice and skill rather than random dice rolls. Overall, the review gives a good feel for the game and of course, is very positive. The other is ‘Mini Reviews’, a page of thumbnail descriptions of various roleplaying games that the readers might want for Christmas. The games include Chivalry & Sorcery (“the ultimate in “realism”), RuneQuest (sadly out of print, but very good despite the “absurd barbarian ducks”), Gamma World (mostly an arms race), Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship (has more of an aim to the game than Gamma World, but everyone has the same aim), and Superhero 2044 (“Buy this game! For a little light relief (or even a rare serious game) nothings is better.”). The weirdest description is saved for Traveller. “Players send characters through “space academy” and then send them out into the universe to make their way. Everywhere they go they will find the problems of drugs, frauds, frame-ups, galactic mafia groups and other nasties. The usual course of action is to get involved in all this, and most games turn out as bank robberies, space-jakings [sic] and various other delightful crimes. All great fun!” The combat system is described as disappointing and the rules for spaceship battles as being particularly awful. This is a surprisingly negative reaction to the world’s most venerable Science Fiction roleplaying game and whilst this is before there was much in the way of background for Traveller’s setting of Charted Space, was this really how it was played back then?

In between, Keith Andrews’ second contribute to the issue is in a new column called ‘The Ideas Page’. This is a collection of tricks, traps, and useful ideas, such as driving iron spikes into the heads of statues to sabotage them should they animate; placing a pit or drop behind a door spiked shut that an adventurer has to break down and will then fall into the pit or drop; set smoky fires to drive recalcitrant monsters out of their lairs; let monsters use Molotov cocktails as well as the Player Characters; and since the Player’s Handbook lists the prices of several birds, bring them along in the dungeon to test potions with. Plus, canaries can be obviously used to detect fumes or gases and others set into rooms to set off traps. It is obviously cruel and turns dungeon exploration into a procedure.

Following them is ‘INFO’ which combines elements of ‘The Ideas Page’ with a Classified Section. Nigel Proudfoot suggests replacing the Saving Throw versus Poison or die mechanic with an ongoing damage effect and keeping Saving Throws versus ‘delayed action’ poison effects like paralysation a secret to keep a player from knowing when his character can act. The magic items such as M. Hankin’s Carpet of Welcome and Sean Longmore’s Bracers of Polymorph are nicely inventive and detailed. The Carpet of Welcome is perfect for the villain as it makes anyone who steps over it susceptible to his suggestions—as per the spell, whilst the Bracers of Polymorph let the wearer change shape three times per day, but there is a chance that he will change into a random monster!

‘DM’s Corner’ discusses how to design and run a living dungeon rather than a zoo dungeon. The latter is random, whilst the former is not as it has to be designed as an ecological system where the monsters live, work, and survive and the system as a whole will react to the intrusion and activities of the Player Characters. The article makes clear that this requires not just more work to design, but more work to maintain. It is a good introduction to the concept and a good starting point to anyone wanting to create and run more than simple dungeon hack.

The issue of fanzine has just two monster entries, surprisingly. The first is Alan Bell’s ‘Gnobbleknoll’, a living hill that casts Control Weather, forcing passers-by to take shelter in the cave in the hill, which of course, is its mouth! Those captured can hack their way out, but this requires a lot of damage to be inflicted and there is a limited air supply. The second is the ‘Reaper Skeleton’ by A. Whitcombe, a scythe-wielding skeleton that has a chance to lop limbs off and if it kills an enemy will whisk their body off to serve a demon or devil. Of the two, the ‘Gnobbleknoll’ is the more entertaining, though the idea of idea of a living hill is ridiculous (but then so is a living island).

The second and main adventure in The Beholder Issue No. 9 is ‘The Pagoda’. This details a strange pagoda built over an ancient burial ground by a hostile nomadic sect and is designed for a party of four to ten Player Characters of Third or Fourth Level. The pagoda has six storeys with balconies on the upper five watched over by black ravens capable of  casting Darkness and is home to a sect of Fighters, Monks, and Assassins led by the vampire, Sihng-ai, and a religious speaker, a Cleric/Fighter/Magic-User. Below the pagoda are the Undertombs (also identified as the ‘Underchambers’), the original tomb complex built into a network of caves and also occupied by the sect. Given the fact that it is located in a pagoda, the scenario has a slightly Asian feel to it, but the design does not belabour this or fall into cultural stereotypes. It is otherwise a decently done evil temple with enough flavour and details that it could be worked into a campaign with a moderate amount of effort. What lets it down is the cartography which does not make clear the means of access between different floors of the pagoda, though the Undertombs has a clean and open style that is identifiably that of The Beholder.

The issue dips its hand into the ‘Magic Jar’ and this time pulls out a single ring, one supposedly not as powerful as listed in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. However, the Ring of Amplification has the potential to be still powerful. It has multiple clasps and each clasp can hold a gem. If a gem with possible magical properties is placed in a clasp and a Mending spell cast on it, the Ring of Amplification will enhance it. For example, an agate ensures restful, safe sleep. When amplified, it grants immunity to Sleep spells, reduces the amount of sleep needed per night, and grants slow healing. Beryl wards of foes, so when amplified can detect enemies nearby and imposes a penalty to attack the wearer! A Ring of Amplification can have up to five clasps and the article describes some thirty different effects for different gems. Even with two clasps this is still a powerful magic item and with more? It is clever idea and one that a player would really want for his character because of its customisation feature, and that makes it both powerful and desirable.

Physically, The Beholder Issue No. 9 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. 9 is another solid issue of the fanzine, made all the more remarkable by the fact that the editors are publishing it on a regular, monthly basis. ‘The Pagoda’ is probably the standout content in the issue, but the reviews and the ‘Games Day V’ recap are fascinating views from the beginnings of the hobby.

[Fanzine Focus XLIV] Visitors to Fairhaven No. 1

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. That said, not all fanzines support or are written for the Old School Renaissance. That said, not all fanzines support or are written for the Old School Renaissance. Some are written for more modern roleplaying games and some of them can be for quite small roleplaying games such as Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game. This is a roleplaying game in which the hosts of public access television shows investigate odd happenings in the town of Fairhaven and try to prevent the town from getting too weird. What is truly weird is that Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game has not one fanzine devoted to it, but two! One is 13 This Week from Savage AfterWorld, whilst the other is Visitors to Fairhaven from Dragon Peak Publishing.

Visitors to Fairhaven No. 1: The Yellow Truth of Fellowship Farm was published in September, 2024 by Dragon Peak Publishing. From the outset, Visitors to Fairhaven No. 1 has an identity problem. Is its title ‘Children of the Yellow Moon’ or ‘The Yellow Truth of Fellowship Farm’? Is it a fanzine or not a fanzine? The former is unclear, whilst the latter is certain. It is not a fanzine. Rather, it is a scenario inspired by R.W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow. As Hosts of their own public access television series the Station Manager is offering them a great prize—having a commercial for their programme played between features at the town’s Film Palace! All a Host has to do get an interview on his programme with Eric Garcia! The Hollywood star of popular television series Mi Mama and Me—recently cancelled on a cliff-hanger—has returned to his hometown after the death of his estranged mother, Victoria, in the decrepit manner where she raised him.

There are complications of course. Victoria Garcia died under mysterious circumstances (randomly determined) and whilst Eric wants the house rezoned for commercial use, but the council wants to make it a historical site. It is also cluttered and Eric wants a photographic album found, but it is possible that the Hosts will find a strange comic, Tales of Mystery, which has characters almost like the Hosts on the cover and inside the story tells the events of the scenario so far… Plus, one of the Hosts is holding an ancient dagger and stabbing at a yellow orb that bears a killer’s face. There are further complications, including Eric’s pregnant daughter, a religious therapy camp for troubled teens which probably takes its fundamentalism too far, and a set of tunnels that seem to run everywhere under Fairhaven.

And that really is it to Visitors to Fairhaven No. 1—and it is only the first ten pages. So, what of the remaining eighteen? Well, they consist of three tables—‘d66 Visitors to Fairhaven’, ‘d66 Weird Places’, and ‘d66 Strange Complications’. They are there for if the Game Master needs an additional weird element, whether that is a visitor, location, or complication. The author has some fun with these, such as FBI Agent Clarisse Foster, “Young and confident. Looking for a serial killer. Constantly on the phone, calling a convicted cannibal for advice.” Or an encounter with man who says, “Have you seen it? I have.” and then his face as if it were a mask, before disappearing from existence, leaving behind only the ‘mask’ that was his face!

Which all begs the question, “And?” What happens next? How do the NPCs respond to the Hosts’ actions and questions? Well, they are left up to the Game Master to decide and improvise during play, but the Game Master is never told this. Consequently, ‘The Yellow Truth of Fellowship Farm’ is neither a scenario nor an adventure, because it is all set-up and nothing else. It is a perfectly good set-up, but it is not complete. Plus, almost two thirds of Visitors to Fairhaven No. 1 is something else entirely and those tables are good, but necessarily ones that need consulting during the scenario. Lastly, it is not really a fanzine. It is professionally produced rather than fan produced and really does not feel like a fanzine.

Physically, Visitors to Fairhaven No. 1 is solidly produced and presented. It is a quick and easy read. The cover is eye-catching in a pulpy style.

Visitors to Fairhaven No. 1 is going to leaving the Game Master wanting more. ‘The Yellow Truth of Fellowship Farm’ is a solid set-up even if it does leave the Game Master with all of the work to do, whilst the three sets of tables are going to be useful in the long term. Overall fine, but if the Game Master who wants something ready-to-play, then she should look elsewhere.

[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. Unfortunately, Pavic Tales Issue 1 and its other issues are not readily available, a limited release meaning that they are highly collectible. It would be interesting to see the contents updated and made available for every fan, not just the collectors. 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.

‘The Sisterhood of Jezzerissa’ by Mark Corbett is a Death cult that protects its members—all women—and crushes its enemies. It is not a cult in the classic RuneQuest sense, more of a sororal organisation prepared to take revenge upon those that wrong its members. This would be in addition any other religious cult that the members belong too. There are plenty of ways in which this could be used.

Pavic Tales Issue 1 comes to a close with some more silliness such as ‘Why Don’t Women Like RuneQuest?’ and anti-AD&D advert, and some introductions to the fanzine from its editors. Butch Wheeler’s gives the origins of the fanzine, whilst Jim Mozley’s is more controversial, disagreeing with Greg Stafford that any Player Character who achieves Rune Lord or Rune Priest status should be retired and suggesting ways in which he could continue to go on adventures, or in particular, heroquests. The point is also to give something for the readers to write in about and discuss in the proposed letters page for the next issue.

Physically, Pavic Tales Issue 1 is a rough, scruffy affair in keeping with its amateur status. It is unillustrated, but the cartography is servicable and the three-panel cartoons, including ‘Fumblethrow’ are not bad and mildly amusing to boot.

It would be easy to dismiss Pavic Tales Issue 1 as a first issue, given how rough it is in places and how the editors bemoan the state of the hobby in 1987. That would be unfair though, since it is a first issue and that it was done on typewriter (not everyone had access to the early Desk Top Publishing packages which were then becoming available, let alone a computer), and gamers are still bemoaning the state of the hobby four decades on… Pavic Tales Issue 1 is interesting to read for its nostalgia value and for the view that its editors did have of their hobby—and the fact that they did something about it. There is certainly no doubting their ambition and their love for Glorantha that shows in Pavic Tales Issue 1. The fiction which gives the backgrounds to ‘The Cult of the Fire Spirit’ and the campaign are still entertaining and the scenario is playable today, even though it would require a lot of tweaks and motivations to work with any ease. For those fortunate enough to have had access to Pavic Tales Issue 1 would have found its contents useful support for their RuneQuest campaign and an enjoyable read. Today, Pavic Tales Issue 1 is still an enjoyable read.

[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.)