[Free RPG Day 2026] Fire & Brimstone

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.

—oOo—

For Free RPG Day 2026, Magpie Games published not one book, but six—Adventure Booklet 1: Earth & Root, Adventure Booklet 2: Fire & Brimstone, Adventure Booklet 3: Ash & Steel, Adventure Booklet 4: Air & Wind, and Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist as well as the Expanded Rules supplement. These are all for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns for any roleplaying game. This is the roleplaying adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, animated series which are inspired by the indigenous cultures of North America and Asia, in particular, China, Chinese martial arts, and the ability to ‘bend’ or manipulate the four elements—water, earth, fire, and air. Only one person can bend all four elements, and he is known as the ‘Avatar’, and not only does he serve as the link between the physical world and the spirit world, but he is also responsible for maintaining harmony between the world’s four nations. In the roleplaying game, the players roleplay characters, or companions, who are capable of bending one of the elements as well as practising martial arts, all with the aim of protecting the world from harm and those unable to stand up to misuse of power.

As with the other four Adventure Booklets, Adventure Booklet 2: Fire & Brimstone originally appeared in Wan Shi Tong’s Adventure Guide, which explores and presents adventures in the different eras of the Avatarverse, including the Kyoshi, Roku, the Hundred Year War, Aang, and Korra periods. Adventure Booklet 2: Fire & Brimstone presents a Roku Era Adventure whose action takes place at the Four Nations Summit & Technological Symposium in Hari Bulkan, the capital of the Fire Nation. Shortly after the opening ceremony with performances and displays by all four nations, Kuchtei, the Fire Nation’s Minister of Education, Science, and Technology bursts into the meeting hall and announces that someone has stolen multiple crates containing rare meteorite metal. When forged, this metal can be used to create unbreakable weapons and devices and so is worth more than its weight in gold! Kuchtei demands that the thief or thieves reveal themselves and when no-one is forthcoming, announces that security will increased and when the perpetrator is found, he will feel the full force of the Fire Nation’s law. In the wake of this announcement, Taqukaq, a famous Waterbender from the Northern Water Tribe approaches the Player Characters, explains the situation, and asks them to investigate, to find out not only who stole the meteorite metal, but also why.

The scenario presented in Adventure Booklet 2: Fire & Brimstone is like a murder mystery in a cosy country house a la Agatha Christie, except the Player Characters are not investigating a murder, but a theft and are at a conference rather than a country house. Nevertheless, they are in a small environment, there are numerous witnesses to interview and interrogate, and there are multiple suspects. This though is a scenario for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, which means that whilst there are multiple suspects, there not one set culprit and not one set solution to the crime. Instead, the Game Master is expected to build the adventure plot and story around the actions and investigation conducted by the Player Characters. There is also not a given end to the scenario, but a discussion of how it might end, along with advice on running the scenario as a whole. This covers how to pace the scenario, escalate the situation with events, both create and handle good clues, and running the investigation. In particular, how to shift the story from its investigative process and interaction with the various NPCs and factions to combat scenes and back again, as well as some answers to additional questions that might arise during play.

Beyond this set-up—and it is a very detailed set-up—the Player Characters are free to approach the investigation however they want. To that end, all of the NPCs, groups, and important locations are described in detail and backed up with the solid advice for the Game Master. In addition, there is advice too for the Game Master on who to set up the scenario if the players are using their own characters rather than the pre-generated quintet which is included in Adventure Booklet 2: Fire & Brimstone. The five pre-generated Player Characters for the adventure are all Air Nomads attending the conference on behalf of the Elders of the Southern Air Temple to help keep the peace and report back on ideas presented at the event. They include the excitable and ambitious Bo the Bold; the spirit seer Chegu the Icon, reluctant about her revered position and who also comes with an air bison; Ema the Idealist who is building devices that mimic airbending abilities; Sherah the Pillar, a covert operative; and Norbu the Rogue, a troublemaker and thrillseeker glad to be away from the temple.

Also included are details of the Basic Moves and Balance Moves in Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game—in addition the Moves for all of the Player Characters—and the techniques that are not in the core book, plus the combat exchanges, statuses, and basic techniques. Taqukaq is also fully described and there is advice too on how to use Legendary NPCs like Taqukaq. Also detailed are the various Techniques used in the scenario by the NPCs not found in the core rulebook. In some ways, the Game Master advice is so complete and feels longer than the broader description of the situation in Adventure Booklet 2: Fire & Brimstone and the summit location.

Physically, Adventure Booklet 2: Fire & Brimstone is well presented, sturdy booklet.

Adventure Booklet 2: Fire & Brimstone is not a scenario in the traditional sense, but very much more of a highly detailed set-up backed up with all of the background, stats, and advice that the Game Master needs to respond in what will very much be a Player Character-driven investigation and story. This makes it a bit more complex to run than the previous Adventure Booklet 1: Earth & Root and the Game Master needs to prepare it with care to cover most eventualities. Fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra will enjoy the background too and overall, Adventure Booklet 2: Fire & Brimstone is great support for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game.

[Free RPG Day 2026] Creature Curation Presents #1

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.

—oOo—

Creature Curation Presents #1 is a slightly different product for Free RPG Day because it is an anthology of three adventures for three different roleplaying games, all three of them compatible with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. One of the three roleplaying games will be familiar, it previously having appeared as support for Free RPG Day with Into the Würmhole back in 2021, whilst the others will be less so. One thing to bear in mind with Creature Curation Presents #1 is that whilst it states that the quick-start rules are included, this is not actually the case. Instead QR codes are provided for each of the three roleplaying games as well as either a QR code to a character generator for the roleplaying game or a set of pre-generated Player Characters. This makes preparation a little slower than it ordinarily might have been if they had been included, but not overly so.

The first scenario, ‘Impaled Obelisk’, is for Vast Grimm, the pre-apocalypse Science Fiction roleplaying game set in a very future in which cultists have unleashed the infection of THEY, whose infection of Würms and the Grimm have hollowed out and shattered worlds, including the Earth. Humanity’s last hope is the Gate of Infinite Stars, through which the uninfected survivors can escape and find a universe where they will be free of the Würms and the gnawing… In the meantime, pirates and cultists prey on the survivors as desperate men and women gather together in Legions and explore what remains of the universe, perhaps hoping to find something that will towards humanity’s continued survival and the construction of the Gate of Infinite Stars

In ‘Impaled Obelisk’, the Legion answer the distress call of the Gallant Obelisk, a starship that went missing nine decades ago and is found to have crashed nose first into the surface of the planetoid, Caladron 7. It is unlikely that any of the original crew are still alive, but there may still be much to scavenge, some of which will be valuable, some of which might help mankind. Caladron 7’s low gravity means that the Player Characters can easily propel themselves up its length, exploring its corridors, research facilities, scientific laboratories, crew quarters, engineering spaces, and more. Everything seems to be covered in a Web Goo and none of the bodies of the crew can be found. ‘Impaled Obelisk’ is a classic ‘wrecked spaceship as dungeon’ scenario, not a little like Alien, but ‘Grimm’ in its own way. It is easy to run as a one-shot or add to a Game Master’s campaign.

The second scenario is for Raptor Ruckus. This is inspired by 1993’s Jurassic Park and is a survival horror roleplaying game in which the Player Characters are staff at the world’s new and greatest theme park about to excite the world about dinosaurs once again! Of course, things can go wrong. There can be storms or breakdowns or worse, agents of Basilisk, the anti-human doomsday cult, working to sabotage and undermine the whole project!

In ‘Airborne’, the Player Characters are returning to the island park after showing off one of the dinosaurs to investors on the mainland. They are travelling aboard a Lockheed C-130 transport along with a kentosaurus, sedated and caged. Suddenly, there is a bang and the aeroplane pitches nose down—is it about to crash? Just as bad is that one of the creature handlers draws a gun and points it at the Player Characters! Thus, the adventure starts with a bang and carries on from there as they are faced by one dangerously dinosaurous situation after another. They have to get out of the aeroplane, are attacked by Pteranodons on the way down, and find themselves on the wrong side of the fence back in the dinosaur park! And even when they get to the other side, it looks like saboteurs have been hard at work whilst the Player Characters have been away on the mainland. The scenario includes the stats for some dinosaurs, a pair of fanatical cultists, and an entertaining NPC to portray. Pleasingly, it does include a dinosaur chase, exactly as you would want, and overall, this is an excitingly tense chase scenario from start to finish that can lead into Fragmentation, the first campaign for Raptor Ruckus.

The third scenario is for Neon Bastardz. This is a near future roleplaying game inspired by Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland and all of the bad ‘B’ and straight to video trashy Sci-Fi movies of the eighties and noughties. The Player Characters are Skumdogs, lowlife-not-quite-scum pushed to take the dirty jobs no one wants to do, from cleaning the sewers of CHUDs to finding radical treasures in the wastelands for the Detroit-Prime Hyper-Lux.

In ‘Killing Detroit Prime Style’, the Player Characters are gangers, members of a war party perhaps hired to do a job for BioRent Worldwide, Detroit-Prime’s leading biotech manufacturer. The offices of BioRent Worldwide on floor #207 of the city’s megablock have been taken over by Ninja. It is up to the gangers to break into the building, ascend to floor #207, find the Ninja and beat their ass before sending them back to their dojo in body bags. Floor #207 is large with separate areas that might take up whole floors in lesser blocks, but whether the cubicle maze, client consultation room, organ storage, executive offices, and so on, the gangers will find Ninja. The gangers can earn ‘Friendship Points’ by saving civilians who are at risk, sparing an enemy who surrenders, giving an emotional speech, fighting back-to-back with an ally, and so on. They can be spent to re-roll any die, heal a downed ally, add a bonus to an ally’s attack, and so on. All very eighties buddy movie and cinematic. ‘Killing Detroit Prime Style’ is a beat ’em up scenario, very much more style than substance and easily the easiest of the three scenarios in the anthology to prepare.

Physically, Creature Curation Presents #1 is a blast of bright neon colour. Of the three, ‘Airborne’ for Raptor Ruckus is underwritten in places, but otherwise, all three are easy to grasp. The artwork is decent throughout, but the cartography is plain if serviceable.

Creature Curation Presents #1 packs in three easy-to-run scenarios that a Game Master can each run in a single session. ‘Impaled Obelisk’ for Vast Grimm and ‘Airborne’ for Raptor Ruckus are the best of the three, as ‘Killing Detroit Prime Style’ is Neon Bastardz is simplistic, but all three are solid introductions to their respective roleplaying games.

Friday Filler: Split the Hoard

You have persevered. You have made it to the end of the dungeon. The dragon is dead. You survived. Right before you are not only the dragon’s hulking corpse, but also its hoard. Mounds of gold coins and gems and jewels. Then the magical items. What matters now is how you divide the hoard between you. It would not be too difficult normally, but this time, there is a deadline looming. Scavengers are coming to take what they can and they will not take any prisoners. So, you need to pick over the hoard, argue for the best bits, and get out again. And you do not have to entirely honest about it—you can demand it or even steal it too! All of you are savvy enough to get out of the dungeons, but the question is, who is going to get out with the most and the best? As veteran adventurers, you know it is never a good idea to split the party, but splitting the hoard is another matter.

This is the set-up to Split the Hoard. This is the first card game from EN Publishing, known for the ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—and Level Up! roleplaying games. Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is intended to be played by between two and five players, aged fourteen and over, and plays in twenty minutes.

Split the Hoard consists of five Player Boards and five Privacy Screens, one-hundred-and-three Hoard cards, twenty Title cards, a Dragon card, the Rulebook, and the Appendices. The five Player Boards depict five classic fantasy archetypes—Cleric, Druid, Rogue, Warrior, and Wizard—and grant an ability, mark the three spaces where the player places the Hoard cards representing treasure he has found, and shows the round order. For example, the Warrior’s ability is to win ties for Arms titles and gain a random treasure from the Hoard deck if an Arms treasure is taken from his haul. The spaces on the Player Board where he places treasures up for negotiation are marked with one, two, or three coins. One oddity is that the Player Boards are double-sided, but the same on both sides, where it would have been nice for the illustration of the hero to be of one gender on one side and another on the other, or perhaps a different ability.

The Hoard cards are double-sided. On the back is a Coin and when played face down like this, these Coin cards are used to set the prices for treasures and to purchase treasures. On the front of each Hoard card is the details of a specific treasure. These are divided into five categories—Arcane, Arms, Holy, Natural, and Wealth—corresponding to the five archetypes of the Player Boards. A Treasure card either has a ‘Rank’ or ‘Victory Point’ value. The ‘Rank’ value is totalled in combination with other Treasure cards to determine if a hero is eligible to certain Title card. The ‘Victory Point’ value contributes to a player’s final score at the end of the game. A Treasure card will also have a special ability. For example, the ‘Grimoire’ can be discarded in the Claim phase to allow a player to draw an extra hidden Title card from the Title deck, whilst in the Negotiate phase, the ‘Sword’ can be discarded to allow a player to negotiate for an extra Treasure.

The Title cards are scoring objectives for the game. Each has a victory condition such as “Score if you have the highest combined value of rank cards” for the Archmage or “Score if you possess a Ruby and an Armour” for the Captain. Five of these are the Starting Titles that are visible from the beginning of the game and can be won by anyone. The others are kept secret by the players before being revealed at the end of the game to see if their scoring conditions have been fulfilled.

Penultimately, the ‘Rulebook’ is short at just twenty-pages, but includes examples of play throughout. Lastly, the ‘Appendices’ is almost three times the length of the ‘Rulebook’ and explains how each of the Treasure cards and Title cards work. It is a handy reference that makes it easier to check the specifics of each Treasure card or Title card and it also has examples of the game’s cards in play as well.

At the start of the game, each player receives a random Player Board, a Privacy Screen, a random Title card, and four Coin cards. The five Starting Titles are placed where everyone can see them. The game is played in rounds consisting of three phases—‘Reveal’, ‘Negotiate’, and ‘Claim’. In the ‘Reveal’ phase, the players take it in turns to draw three Treasure cards and arrange them however they want on the one, two, or three slots on their Player Board, one Treasure card per slot. A Player can increase the cost of a Treasure by adding Coin cards from his Haul.

In the ‘Negotiate’ phase, each player lifts his Privacy Screen and reveals the Treasures has picked over from the Hoard. In turn, each player either takes two cards from the Hoard deck as Coin cards (that is, face down) and adds them to his Haul or negotiates for a single Treasure from another player. As long as the active player can pay the cost in Coin cards, determined by the base cost for the slot on another player’s Player Board and any extra Coin cards the player has placed on his Player Board, a player cannot stop the active player from taking a Treasure card. In the phase, ‘Claim’, Coin cards placed on Player Boards to increase Treasure prices are discarded and any Treasures remaining on a Player Board go into their respective player’s Haul. If there are no Treasures on a player’s Player Board, he draws three new Treasure cards and adds them to his Haul.

The heart of the game play for Split the Hoard is all built around a ‘I Cut, You Choose’ mechanic in which each player is deciding upon the value of his Treasure cards he is offering in each round, whilst the other players are deciding whether or not to choose something. Here is where the bluff and speculation come into play, rather than negotiation as such. Indeed, the actual ‘Negotiate’ phase is a misnomer since no actual negotiation. Instead, what a player is trying to do find the Treasure cards he wants on other player’s Player Boards whilst trying to keep hold of these he wants to score with at the end of the game. The obvious way to do that is protect a Treasure card by increasing the price that another player has to pay, but this has its own cost, since a player must invest Coins to raise that price. If the Treasure they are attached to is bought, the player will get the Coins back, but if not, they are lost. This is where the speculation comes into play. Further, a player could actually lure another player into thinking a Treasure with Coin cards attached is actually valuable or something he wants, bluffing the player into thinking that he is denying him a Treasure he wants to keep.

The aim of the game is, of course, for a player to get Treasure cards into his Haul and use them to score points at the end of the game. However, a player can also discard a face-up Treasure card from his Haul to activate its ability. The range from being able to draw more Coins from the Hoard deck, more Titles from the Title deck, take an extra Treasure from another player’s Player Board, move a Treasure from your Player Board to your Haul, and so on, manipulating different parts of the game’s play. Each player must balance the need to keep Treasure cards for the end game’s scoring and using their special abilities. Treasure cards played for their special abilities can be played at any time during the phase indicated on the card, even when it is not a player’s turn.

The game ends when a player cannot draw any cards from the Hoard deck. Each player scores Victory Points for Starting Tile cards and Hidden Title cards whose scoring conditions they fulfilled and then also for Treasure cards. If there is a tie, the winner is the player with the most Coins in his Haul. Here is where the game play gets complex in comparison to the base game play as each player tries to work out his total Rank value from the Treasure cards in his Haul to determine which Title cards he qualifies for. This is the hardest bit of Split the Hoard to learn and teach, but once everyone has the hang of it, game play is fast enough.

Physically, Split the Hoard is very nicely presented. Both ‘Rulebook’ and ‘Appendices’ are well written and provide clear explanations of the various parts of the game. The artwork on the cards is excellent and everything is solid and sturdy. EN Publishing has done an excellent job with the production values on Split the Hoard.

Split the Hoard is a very likeable game, good looking, easy to teach and play, and makes excellent use of its theme. It is a very solid filler that fans of classic fantasy roleplaying will definitely enjoy and a good first game from EN Publishing.

[Fanzine Focus XLIV] High Passage Number Two

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 showcased how another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. 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.

High Passage Number Two was published by the High Passage Group in 1981, providing content for Classic Traveller published by Game Designers’ Workshop. Its content focuses on the Old Expanses sector of the Third Imperium between Terran and Vilani space. Where the first issue was written by fans and that showed in its quality, the second issue displays a marked improvement in quality, both in terms of the writing and the presentation. Some of this is reflected in the increase in price ($3.50 to $4.50), but what it was really due was the involvement of the FASA Corporation which was now publishing the fanzine. This gave the editors access to the artwork of William H. Keith Jr. and the layout skills available at FASA..

The featured content in High Passage Issue Number Two is ‘FEATURE Adventure: The Cobra Conspiracy’. The Player Characters are pirates, the crew of the corsair, Iron Hand, operating out of Ehart in the So Skire subsector of The Old Expanses sector. A representative from the Solomani rebels hires the Iron Hand and its crew to break into the DDD&S test facilities on Tama in the So Skire subsector and steal the FZ-72 Cobra, the new high performance fighter being tested for the Imperial Navy. Security is relatively light given the high incidence of pirate activity across the subsector, but the facility has hired mercenaries to beef up security.

This is the set-up to what is effectively a ‘snatch & grab’ mission and it is very fully supported. There is a full set of stats for the pirate crew of the Iron Hand and the equipment in their ship’s locker, as well as details of the fighter and the test facility. This is quite large and has a runway, fuel storage depot, heliport, and main complex, all separate. All four areas are mapped and some forty personnel are given stats and armament as needed. The duty rooster is accompanied by a daily schedule which indicates where each individual will be at any one time.

There are rumours for the subsector, some of them linked to the I.S.C.V. King Richard deck plans and Action Aboard: Adventures on the King Richard supplement from the FASA Corporation. Many also express anti-Imperial sentiment. There are more rumours that are specific to Tama, the site of the testing facilities. In addition, the Library Data aboard the Iron Hand will inform the Player Characters about the AK Mercenary Corporation, which has the contract at the DDD&S test facilities, as well as Diversified Dynamics Design and Shipyards (the first time that the name for DDD&S is explained), and more. In fact, the Library Data is good for The Expanses sector in general.

The advice for the Game Master covers the theft of the fighter and both refuelling it and launching it and how the staff at the facility will react, plus a rough breakdown of how the heist may play out. The Player Characters’ corsair may run into opposition on the run out from Tama. There are options too, for adding a twist or two and what might happen next if the scenario is being run as part of a campaign or the start of one. To run the adventure, the Game Master and her players require Basic Traveller, Book 4: Mercenary, and probably Book 5: High Guard. If the players want to create their own pirates, then Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium will be useful. Supplement 7: Gunboats & Traders will provide starship encounter tables.

‘The Cobra Conspiracy’ is a superbly detailed scenario, quite technical in its approach, but there are opportunities for roleplaying when researching the facilities and dealing with rumours on Tama in the lead up to the theft attempt. The scenario feels influenced by the technothriller novel Firefox, published in 1977 (and subsequently made into a film with Clint Eastwood in 1982), and that is no bad thing.

Further support for ‘The Cobra Conspiracy’ as well as play beyond or any campaign involving pirates, comes in the form of ‘STARSHIPFILES: Iron Fist Class Pirate Corsair’. This the model that the Player Characters will crew in the scenario and is a four hundred tonne design created using Traveller Book 2: Starships and based on the description given in the Pirate occupation in Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium. The design has three turrets each with three beam lasers, a cargo deck with doors large to admit a one hundred tonne vessel, and variable identification features. It includes deck plans too. The ‘Grav APC’ and the ‘AH-15 Aggressor Attack Helicopter’, both of which appear in the scenario, are detailed in ‘In Transit’.

The ‘Special Feature’ for the issue is the ‘Marc Miller Interview’. Conducted by Craig Johnson, it covers Miller’s background, gaming and design experience, the origins and influences of Traveller. At four pages long it feels lengthy and detailed, but is not complete, the second part coming in the next issue. Otherwise, a very good read, informative and interesting. ‘The Armoury’ provides illustrations for ‘Book 4 Small Arms’ or rather for Book 4: Mercenary, but is really filler. The ‘Star Atlas’ returns to the location for the scenario with a breakdown of the data for and map of the ‘SO SKIRE Subsector’.

Physically, High Passage Number Two is very nicely presented. The artwork is excellent and the cartography is good. The issue is so good in terms of presentation that is more akin to an actual supplement for Traveller.

High Passage Number One was a good first issue, but High Passage Number Two is a really good issue. Its scenario is fantastically well supported and much of its content can be used beyond the events of the scenario, whilst the interview is good enough to want to read part two. High Passage Number Two is simply excellent support for Traveller.

[Fanzine Focus XLIV] Back to BasiX – 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 another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Most of these retroclones are based on either the original version of Dungeons & Dragons or an edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. One such fanzine and one such edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons is Back to BasiX, ‘A new quarterly Fanzine dedicated to a simpler time of RPGs—covering the Basic and Expert editions of Dungeons & Dragons’, published by ThrowiGames, based upon the edition designed by Tom Moldvay and David Cook.

Back to BasiX – Issue #1 was published in June, 2017 and though designed to support all editions of Basic Dungeons & Dungeons though with a slight emphasis placed the Moldvay/Cook version of 1980. In ‘Publishing News’ the author notes the lack of new support for B/X Basic Dungeons & Dragons, referring back to 2007’s Labyrinth Lord from Goblinoid Games and the B/X Companion from Running Beagle Games as being the best available at the time, whilst giving a ‘Product Spotlight’ to the Moldvay/Cook edition of Basic Dungeons & Dungeons that he was given in 1981, noting that, “For me, it is the benchmark for all rulebooks; it is concise, has a clean layout style, and is full of inspiration.” and that “The cover illustration by Erol Otus is one of the most inspirational early images of roleplaying. That single illustration tells a story of adventure; treasure, heroes and a terrible dragon looming in the background made all my friends and I want to pick up dice and roll up a character.” What is interesting about this is that it captures a moment when this edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons was little supported, when the author and the Old School Renaissance had little idea of what was to come in 2019 with the publication of Old School Essentials by Necrotic Gnome that pushed the Moldvay/Cook edition to forefront of the hobby with a superbly presented and accessible update of the rules. Even seven years on, Old School Essentials continues to be a highly popular retroclone.

Back to BasiX – Issue #1 is short at just twelve pages long, but it packs in quite a bit of content. This starts with an ‘Interview with a Legendary Gamer — Merle Rasmussen’, the designer best known for designing Top Secret, but also the author of three adventures for Basic Dungeons & Dragons and Expert Dungeons & Dragons. These are X6 Quagmire!, XSOLO Lathan’s Gold, and BSOLO Ghost of Lion Castle. Given the few pages in the inaugural issues, it is no surprise that the interview is short, but Rasmussen gives a quick overview of his time at TSR, Inc. and expounds on how he enjoyed working on BSOLO Ghost of Lion Castle.

The ‘Winged Snakeman’ of Mythicology, the fanzine’s monster column, begins a serpentine theme that runs through the playable content in the issue. The creature is a merged species created by the failed experiments of a wizard or a spell gone wrong, which rarely lives for long. The snake theme continues with the inclusion of the Magic Sword, +1 vs. Snakes in ‘The Magic Shop’ and then in the ‘Quarterly Dungeon Crawl’. This is ‘Cavern of the Winged Snakemen’, a short scenario for three to five Player Characters of First and Second Level. It details a group of Winged Snakemen that have escaped an experiment and taken up residence in a small cave network. The wizard who created them is trying to find them and destroy them, whilst an evil Cleric and his acolytes have set up a shrine and recruited the Winged Snakemen. Local townsfolk are spreading rumours of the flying men being seen and this should be enough to spur the Player Characters to act. More of a location than an adventure, it is a simple, straightforward affair that is easy to drop into a campaign and use however the Game Master wants.

‘Spellbound’ discusses the choice and use of various spells. It asks if Game Masters let the players of Magic-Users, Elves, and Clerics in their campaign choose their spells or roll for them randomly? The author’s preference is for Magic-Users and Elves to choose theirs as they will have been studying and he has their players tell him which spells are being studied, whilst he has players of Clerics roll for theirs. His choice of spell to examine is Floating Disc, which with its limited duration is not always a very useful spell, and whilst it can carry a lot of weight, a Bag of Holding would be better. When a player selects it, he increases its duration which means a Magic-User has a better chance of getting out of the dungeon with it still running and carrying its load.

‘Crimson Abbey of the Broken God — Part 1’ turns the episode of the comic that follows, ‘Dungeon Delver’ by Travis Hanson into playable content. In the comic, three adventurers have set out on their first quest to retrieve a mysterious artefact from a long deserted abbey. In the comic, they do not get far before discovering a trapped secret door as a way across a chasm. The article gives the location as if written in a scenario and then the background and stats for the trio, a Dwarf, a Magic-User, and a Thief. A solid little introduction to the setting and its cast.

Physically, Back to BasiX – Issue #1 is well written and well presented. The artwork is decent and the cartography is serviceable.

Back to BasiX – Issue #1 is a solid introduction to the fanzine. The Back to BasiX Compilation collects the first ten issues in print whilst all twelve issues are available as a bundle and provides good support for any retroclone.

[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.