[Fanzine Focus XXXIV] Grogzilla #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. However, there are still fanzines being published which cover a variety of different roleplaying games, such as Grogzilla. This is published by D101 Games, best known for the OpenQuest roleplaying game and the Glorantha fanzine, Hearts in Glorantha. It is undeniably a showcase for what the publisher does and is full of ideas and bits and pieces, some of which are silly, some useful, and some interesting.

Grogzilla #2 – Son of Grogzilla! was published in October, 2021, as part of ZineQuest #3 and following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Its tone is distinctly less silly than Grogzilla #1, and its pages contain a good mix of the playable and the interesting. The issue opens with ‘A Slight Return’, a scenario for Monkey: The Role-Playing Game, the action-packed storytelling roleplaying game based upon the Chinese Classic, The Journey to the West, and of course, the television series, which tell of the heroic journey of the Monkey King and his companions, Pigsy, Sandy and Tripitaka through the vibrant world of Chinese folk religion. Monkey: The Role-Playing Game is a lot of fun and allows the players to both roleplay the Monkey King and his companions, or create characters of their own. ‘A Slight Return’ is designed to be run with the latter rather than the former. It is an introductory scenario, which can be used as a one-shot or a convention scenario. It opens with the Monkey King having made a mess across all of Creation in his rebellion against the Heavenly Authorities. It is the job of the Player Characters as disgraced minor Immortals and the appointed inter-Ministry clean-up crew, to tidy everything up and put it back as it was. The Player Characters will find themselves cleaning up the trickster’s poo left on the Register of the Dead, rescuing someone sent to Hell, fix a mountain whose top he lopped off, and more. It is a fun, picaresque little adventure and should be fun to both play and run.

Monkey: The Role-Playing Game is also the subject of the second entry in the fanzine. ‘The Ten-Minute Monkey Setup’ is designed to work with ‘A Slight Return’ or any time that a Game Master is running Monkey: The Role-Playing Game at a convention. It is written in response to a comment from the doyen of Games on Demand, Lloyd Gyan, that the designer’s explanation of the background to Monkey: The Role-Playing Game prior to running it at a convention was too long. It distils the background and set-up to just two pages as well as suggesting what to leave out. Clear and concise, it is the sort of thing that every roleplaying game should have.

‘Summerset: The Heart of Angland’ introduces a setting for 13th Age, the roleplaying game from Pelgrane Press which combines the best elements of both Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition and Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition to give high action combat, strong narrative ties, and exciting play. The setting takes place in Summerset, between the Red Castle in the north and Glasteenbury in the south, the most magical area in all of the Kingdom of Angland. It combines Arthurian legend with elements of the War of the Roses and the dark Satanic mills of the North some six centuries after the Romanous Empire withdrew from the country, five centuries after King Arthur I united the peoples of Angland, and five years after the end of The Rose War between the Nobles of Lankshire and the Nobles of Yirkshire in the Grim North. It gives a short history of the setting, a guide to its leading notables—they are the Icons of Angland which the Player Characters will be associated with, for good or ill, and its various locations. There is actually quite a lot of detail here and this is a solidly decent introduction to the setting. All that is really missing is a page or so of hooks that the Game Master could develop into scenarios.

The second scenario in Grogzilla #2 is ‘More Metal Than You’ll Ever Live to Be!’. This is designed for use with three to six Player Characters of Second and Third Level, for use with either Crypts & Things or Swords Against the Shroud. However, it would work with any number of other retroclones. It describes a crypt that was once the metallic body of the dead insect god, Anack’doska, hollowed by his evil cultists, who then developed amazing arms and armour before turning on themselves and wiping out the cult. There is said to be a great still left within the complex. Located under a volcano means that the tunnels and caves have a sulphurous quality and scattered throughout the complex are a number of metallic statues and ‘constructs’. The dungeon is serviceable and playable, but nothing more than that. It is the least interesting entry in the fanzine.

‘Welcome to Slumberland’ is the first of three entries in Grogzilla #2 devoted to Slumberland, a proposed roleplaying game of ‘Sleepy Horror’ using the mechanics of Liminal. It has a roughly Elizabethan feel and distinct North of England tones combined with a rural distrust of outsiders and especially anyone from the South. In Slumberland, the Player Characters are Wanderers, rootless adventurers sent by a Merciful Monarch, Queen Nell, to the edge of her Queendom to help the residents of Slumberland. The mistrustful inhabitants refuse to accept the interloping Wanderers as ‘locals’, restricting where they can sleep or what residence they can own, until they have earned some ‘Respect’. This is done by carrying various tasks and jobs too dangerous for ordinary folk. In other words, doing the typical adventuring things. ‘Respect’ is included as a new stat in Slumberland, representing the Wanderers’ interaction with the locals, whilst ‘Rest’ replaces Will in Liminal. A Wanderer with a high Rest is calm and collected, but with a low Rest is irritable and unpredictable, yet is at an advantage when interacting with the Dreaming, the magical realm that pervades Slumberland.

‘Welcome to Slumberland’ includes a guide to the area, its places, including the River Slumber, which sends anyone who falls into it asleep and an Underworld of failed routes under the mountain now filled with monsters. Important things include Tea and Slow Gin, and horrors include undead horrors like the Barrow Wrongs and night horrors found under the bed and in the closet. There is also a lengthy guide to Slumberish, the dialect of the region. ‘Welcome to Slumberland’ has an intentionally odd bucolic feel, set in Tudor England, but it does veer into regional stereotypes at times.

‘The Slumberland Hack’, the middle article presents the changes to the Liminal rules to run Slumberland as a setting. This includes rules for Rest, weapon and armour as Slumberland is a fantasy setting, and new skills, concepts like the Royal Guard, Spy, Templar, and Field Magician, and Limitations such as ‘Servant of the Crown’ meaning that the Player Character has sworn an oath to serve Queen Nell and takes it very, very seriously. The new Limitation, ‘Royal College Field Magician’ grants access to a handful of spells, which cost Rest to cast, whilst ‘Order of the Solemn Temple Liturgist’ provides divine powers. Of note is the magic spell, Slumber. Which specifically affects a target’s Rest and can put a mob to sleep. Overall, the changes make sense, though there is no mechanical explanation for ‘Rest’.

‘The Tunnel to Slumberland’, the third article dedicated to Slumberland, is an introductory scenario designed to get the Player Characters there. Every thirty years the monarch of the Realm is obliged to send aid to the North, ‘Agents of Mercy. In this case, it is the Wanderers, or Player Characters, who are sent north from Crystal City by good Queen Nell. Their route will be via a tunnel to avoid Spider Wood which has been taken over by the Darkness. Built by Dwarves and managed in part by Master of Royal Works in the north, Bob Dibner, the southern tunnel entrance is in Cheese Gorge. The adventure is a series of linked encounters in the tunnel and will get the Wanderers to the North at the least. After that, the Game Master will need to develop her own adventures.

Overall, Slumberland is fun if slightly silly, British readers of a certain age being able to spot the jokes and references. There is a lot more to be revealed about Slumberland—if it ever appears—but this trio of articles is an enjoyable, if slightly messy introduction. Were it not for the use of the Liminal rules, Slumberland feels as if it could be slotted into the Midderlands setting from Monkey Blond design.

The last article in Grogzilla #2 is one last bit of silliness. ‘The Secret of the Grogdice’ is inspired by Grogmeet, the annual convention organised by The Grognard Files, a North of England podcast dedicated to the games of the late seventies and early eighties. Specifically, it is what the author uses his ‘Grogdie’—a six-sided die given to Game Masters for the event, which has The Grognard Files icon on the number six face of the die—for in play. Essentially, it provides a quick and dirty table to roll on for spicing up play. It does not actually require a Grogdie and would work with any die with a different face to the usual six.

Physically, Grogzilla #2 is clean and simple. It is easy to read and the illustrations are decent. It is a little rough around the edges in places and it does need an edit in others.

Grogzilla #2 has a lot of playable content. The scenario for Monkey: The Role-Playing Game is excellent and a lot of fun, whilst with ‘Summerset: The Heart of Angland’ and ‘Welcome to Slumberland’ the fanzine introduces a pair of interesting settings that do leave the reader wanting more. However, it is disappointing to see neither of them yet fully developed, so the Game Master is on her own until they are. Nevertheless, Grogzilla #2 is an entertaining read that captures a certain Englishness.

[Fanzine Focus XXVI] Grogzilla #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 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.

Once per year, The Grognard Files, a North of England podcast dedicated to the games of the late seventies and early eighties, in particular, RuneQuest, hosts Grogmeet a one-day convention in Manchester, again in the North of England. As The Armchair Adventurers, the podcast also publishes its fanzine, just once a year, and typically timed for release at Grogmeet. The first issue, The Grognard Files – Annual 2017, is available as a ‘Pay What You Want’ PDF available to download with the proceeds of the sale of the fanzine will donated to continue the running of Yog-sothoth.com, the best site dedicated to Lovecraft and Lovecraftian investigative horror. More recent issues, The Grognard Files – Annual 2018 and The Grognard Files – Annual 2019 have sadly not followed suit, but for members of the ‘Grog Squad’ and attendees of Grogmeet, both issues continue to serve up thick, syrupy wodges of nostalgia and gaming inspired by their youths in the nineteen eighties. Of course, worldwide circumstances means that there has been no Grogmeet since 2019 and thus no issue of The Grognard Files, but The Grognard Files – Annual 2019 was not the only fanzine to be released at Grogmeet in 2019. Further, that fanzine has gone on to be expanded following a Kickstarter campaign and unlike The Grognard Files – Annual 2019, is still available.

Grogzilla #1 is published by D101 Games, best known for the OpenQuest roleplaying game and the Glorantha fanzine, Hearts in Glorantha. It is undeniably a showcase for what the publisher does and is full of ideas and bits and pieces, some of which are silly, some useful, and some interesting. The issue starts with the silly—‘A Question of Ducks’, which is a poll of Twitter and the Grog Squad—as fans of The Grognard Files podcast are known—and their feelings about Ducks in gaming. The questions are mostly related to Glorantha, the answers varying from series to silly, depending upon how the respondent feels about Ducks. ‘Four Faces of Grogzilla’ is almost as silly, presenting four versions of the not-kaiju for D101 Games’ different roleplaying games—OpenQuest, Crypts and Things, Monkey the RPG, and River of Heaven: Science-Fiction Roleplaying in the 28th Century. Thus, Grogzilla for OpenQuest is a half-dragon, half demonic reptile thing which slumbers deep under the earth, but which cult priests can summon him to rampage across the land once again, whilst hysterical mobs sacrifice to him in order to avoid such a fate! Then for River of Heaven, Robozilla is a giant robot originally intended to be used to help terraform the world of Terrosa, but since stolen by terrorists! More fun perhaps is Monkeyzilla, for Monkey the RPG, the ten-storey high, fire breathing lizard which the Monkey King transformed into to fight the Pagoda Throwing General, which nobody talks about because of all the destruction wrought in the ensuing battle!

The scenario in Grogzilla #1 is ‘Wigan Pigs’. Written for use with Swords & Wizardry, but therefore adaptable to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice, the scenario is a sequel to The Road to Hell, which is also set during Elizabethan times. It is a mixture of Tudor fantasy and horror, the Player Characters sent by Doctor John Dee to England’s northwest to locate a consignment of missing pigs which should have been delivered to the Irish butcher and purveyor of fine sausages, Mrs Figgins. Such a mundane task hides a nasty secret and a moral quandary for the Player Characters and for Game Master a moment to reflect wonder if the scenario should not have been called ‘The Road to Wigan Pig’ instead. The scenario is also easy to adapt to other systems, but perhaps the most obvious in the two years since the fanzine’s publication is The Dee Sanction.

There are multiple Lovecraftian investigative horror roleplaying games, but Grogzilla #1 offers one more with ‘Outsiders’. This is a game design document, suggesting how the author might design his own Lovecraftian investigative horror roleplaying game were he to do so. First to avoid what Call of Cthulhu does and use those elements of H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction which are in the public domain and then… The result is a scaled down concept, using a simple mechanic with just two six-sided dice, skills which can damage and are therefore harder to use. The Player Characters are actual outsiders, punks and rockers, radical scientists, drifters, hackers, and more, with talents such as Athletics, Science, Gobsite(!), and the like. The opposition consists of Horrors, similarly scaled down, Deep Ones, cultists, and the like, whilst deities—or alien intelligences—are ineffable, unknowable, working their way through their proxies. It would be fascinating to see this developed further by the author, but with access to the fanzine, there is nothing to stop the reader from developing it further.

‘The Six Traveller’s Culture – Magical Questing Gypsies for Mythras’ presents a Culture and its faith for use with The Design Mechanism’s Mythras. A preview of a forthcoming supplement from D101 Games, there is a danger here in presenting gaming content based on other cultures, but this very much appears to have been sensitively done. It provides for their skills—standard, combat styles, and professional, cultural passions, and more. The Six Travellers constantly journey in wagons following routes long established by their heroes and gods, many in the footsteps of the Six, searching for the magical Way Stones, long lost, but capable of fostering trade and safe passage. In their way are the agents of a malevolence known as the Ignorance. Accompanied by notes on the social castes amongst the Six Travellers this culture would make an interesting addition to a fantasy campaign.

Further previews follow. ‘Lost Fools of Atlantis’ is a preview of a roleplaying game about conspiracies and the ridiculousness of conspiracy theories, more a black comedy than a serious game. Again, the game is yet to appear, but the fiction is sufficiently intriguing to wonder what it might be like and actually be about. Lastly ‘The Barbarian at the Gate’ is a preview of Swords Against the Shroud, a rewrite of the Barbarian Class from Crypts and Things for use with The Black Hack, Second Edition. With a high Constitution, a certain fearlessness, initial ferocity in a fight, outdoor survival skills, it is exactly what you would expect in a classic fantasy treatment of the Barbarian. It is well done, with plenty of mechanical flavour and would certainly be fun to play. Between the two, is ‘Pitbull’, a sample NPC, a street ronin, for the Cyberpunk roleplaying game, Reboot. It seems decent enough, but not having seen the roleplaying game, it is difficult to comment further.

Physically, Grogzilla #1 is a ‘rough cut’ affair (note, the version available on Drivethrurpg.com will be different), not quite the ‘deckle edge’ feel, but definitely something with a ‘put together by hand’ feel. Black and white throughout, the cover has pleasing linen finish and the roughness continues throughout the fanzine. Not necessarily to its detriment, but it gives it the amateurish feel of fanzines of old.

Grogzilla #1 is a medley of ideas and previews, not necessarily useful, but nevertheless interesting. The scenario though, ‘Wigan Pigs’, is the exception and easily adaptable.

Friday Fantasy: Tournaments of Madness and Death

Tournaments of Madness and Death is a scenario anthology for Crypts & Things: A Swords & Sorcery Roleplaying Game. Published by D101 Games, this is a grim and dark, Old School Renaissance retroclone which draws its inspiration from Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Fritz Leiber, and L. Sprague de Camp’s Swords and Sorcery anthology. Tournaments of Madness and Death presents two scenarios—almost an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ side, almost because you cannot turn the book over to run either—and more. Both scenarios are designed for a party of between three and six characters of between Fourth and Fifth Levels; both are self-contained, but can be added to a Game Master’s own Crypts & Things campaign, whether one of her design or the default setting of The Continent of Terror; and notably, also designed to be run at conventions.

In fact, this is an important aspect of the two scenarios in Tournaments of Madness and Death. As written, both ‘The Furnace’ and ‘The Tomb of the Evil Emperor’ are designed to be run—and have been run—within a four-hour convention game slot and both include information to that end as part of their advice on how to stage them. In addition, the ‘more’ to Tournaments of Madness and Death includes the equivalent of an insert, slipped between the two scenarios. This is ‘Dark, Delicious and Deadly’, which explains how the author runs Crypts & Things at conventions. This focuses on what makes Crypts & Things different, keeping up the pace—as necessary, rewarding exploration and interaction, how to handle the flow of monsters in the game (primarily, do not over do it), and how to structure the game over the four-hour convention window. It is really good advice for anyone running this style of game and so could be applied to any number of retroclones. If there is an issue with the advice, it is that the author does not quite completely adhere to it himself. The advice states that the Game Master should use pre-generated characters to give out to the players rather than have them create them at the table, which just takes time. So why are there none given for either scenario?

The ‘A’ side or ‘The Furnace’ takes the player characters to the City of Eternal Shadow under Iron Moon chained above and onto the Iron Moon itself. In ages past, the powerful ancient immortals known as the Nine pulled the moon from the heavens and used it to imprison for the evil tyrant, The Mad Tzar. Now, chunks are falling from the Iron Moon onto the city below and everyone is fleeing the city of the dead for fear that the demonic Mad Tzar is about to break free. Can he be prevented from escaping? Will the adventurers come to the aid of the White Wizard Arksal, the last of the Nine? The adventurers have scope for a little investigation in the city before finding their way onto the Iron Moon, though the scenario is very much not investigative in nature. There are secrets to be found in the city below however—and the scenario highlights these as one of the features of Crypts & Things—and these hint that there is something more to this straightforward prevention of The Mad Tzar’s rebirth.

Once on the Iron Moon, the adventurers find themselves in the prison crypt of The Mad Tzar. Like most tombs in most fantasy roleplaying games, it is essentially linear and full of traps and the odd puzzle. There are more secrets to be found, but the dungeon design is itself not terribly interesting. In fact, run as a standard adventure it might even be a bit dull, but run at the suggested pace of a convention game and the players are unlikely to notice. It works to throw a challenge or three into the path of the adventurers to get them to the scenario’s denouement. This is a whole lot more excitement and escalates the danger that the player characters will face as the climax builds and builds. It is a challenging, big knockdown of a fight ending to the scenario and exactly what you want in a convention scenario.

The ‘B’ Side, ‘The Tomb of the Evil Emperor’ brings the adventurers to the tomb of an emperor so vile his name has been intentionally forgotten from the history of the Continent of Terror. He and his city—now known as the Grand Debris—were smashed when a meteor was pulled down onto his palace, which then became his tomb. Now a cult dedicated to his worship, the Scarlet Riders, has smashed its way through the town of Zonos, the City of the Exiles which immediately abuts the walls surrounding the Grand Debris, and into the ruins beyond. There they plan to awaken the Evil Emperor to once again cast his vile rule over the land as in ages past.

This is a much stronger adventure. Although it is still direct in its structure, there is more for the player characters to explore, the encounters are varied, and there is greater scope for roleplaying and exploration. The locations, whether a dissolute court of a governor’s palace or the remains of the Evil Emperor’s Palace under a meteorite, are simply more interesting and the Game Master has a few more NPCs to portray. There is also a ghoulish sensibility to ‘The Tomb of the Evil Emperor’ and if played as part of a campaign, there are more elements to bring into the Game Master’s campaign.

The two scenarios in Tournaments of Madness and Death are similarly structured. Each consists of an introduction or hook, a small urban area for the player characters to explore and perhaps investigate, a connecting adventure section—either an actual dungeon or a dungeon-like area, and finally, a big battle at the end. These elements fit into the suggested timings for running as convention scenarios. They also each deal with the two subjects of the title. Madness in two ways. First in the madness of the locations, the Iron Moon chained over the City of Eternal Shadow of ‘Furnace’ and the palace and city smashed under a meteorite in ‘The Tomb of the Evil Emperor’, as well as in the madness of unleashing unrivalled evil upon the Continent of Terror. Then there is the death that will be unleashed should the player characters fail. That said, there is a sense of familiarity to the locations in both scenarios—a city under a moon and then a smaller city abutting the walls of a much larger, smashed and broken city—that echo elements and locations in Greg Stafford’s Glorantha.

Physically, Tournaments of Madness and Death is slightly disappointing. It definitely needs an edit. However, it is easy enough to read and the maps are quite lovely. The artwork is really rather good and has a weird, often creepy, feel to it, and so fits the grim dark tone of Crypts & Things.

Tournaments of Madness and Death is a solid pair of convention scenarios, accompanied by good advice for running them at such events. In fact, the advice is worth reading by anyone who wants to run a fantasy roleplaying scenario at a convention. Of the two scenarios, ‘The Tomb of the Evil Emperor’ is the better and one that would make a good addition to a campaign. 

[Fanzine Focus XX] Hearts in Glorantha 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 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 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 popular in the Old School Renaissance as the genre is, not all fanzines are devoted to Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games.

The world of Glorantha has had any number of fanzines dedicated to it over its forty year or so history, most notably, Wyrm’s Footnotes and Tales of the Reaching Moon. Published by D101 Games, Hearts in Glorantha is a more recent fanzine, having been published on an irregular basis since 2008. A total of seven issues have been published to date, with the first five collated as Hearts in Glorantha Vol 1 Collected. The inaugural issue, Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 Summer 2008 was subtitled ‘Mythology & Glorantha’ and its focus is very much on the mythology and bringing it to your game. As well as the ‘Mythology & Glorantha’, it comes with two region guides, duck tales, an interview, and more.

The issue opens with John Ossoway’s ‘God Fall’. This details a location in north-eastern Prax, at least a week’s waterless journey from anywhere, a location where a century ago, a new star blazed across the sky and fell to earth. Hailed as a fallen god, its worshippers are known to receive prophetic visions and healing from him whilst they wait until the time he awakens, reveals his identity, and rewards them for their devotion. Both location and cult are described, and there are also notes for shifting God Fall to the Second Age. What is missing here is a scenario seed or two, something to give the description some application to help the Game Master include it in her game.

Publisher and editor of Hearts in Glorantha, Newt Newport, contributes several pieces to this first issue of the fanzine. The first is ‘Prologue Method For Character Generation’, which breaks the character creation process in HeroQuest into three steps—Childhood, Rites of Passage, and Early Experience, and has player and Game Master together explore what happened at each stage. This rewards both with enhanced character creation and background and experience of how the character works in play. He also details a frontier country in the Eastern Wilds of Ralios in two articles—‘Karia’ and ‘Karia Mythology and History’. The first is a gazetteer for Karia, a rough land and only separated from Dorastor Land of Doom by the Kartolin Pass, barely populated by settlers from the Kingdom of Delela, exiles from the Dukedom of Naskorion, and Trolls from the Queendom of Halikiv. The second provides context and background, not just from one point of view, but multiple points. This includes the Orlanthis, the Trolls, and more, before bringing the region up to date at the dawn of the Hero Wars.

‘Homeland: Kralori’ by Mark Galeotti explores Kralorela, the Kingdom of Splendor in Eastern Genertela. It details this very traditional, caste-bound culture, their common faiths, and the Kralori pantheon. This is supported with particular Keywords for use with HeroQuest and nicely captures the conservative nature of the society. Elsewhere Stuart Mousir-Harrison describes Aweke, a low-growing ground herb found across Pralorela and elsewhere for ‘Flora of Glorantha’. It details how although difficult to cultivate, it has stimulating and endurance-enhancing properties.

The ‘Mythology & Glorantha’ focus gets underway with David Dunham’s ‘The Tale Theft’. This is a ‘do-it-yourself’ means of creating heroquests, using words and ideas on cards as elements which players can tribute towards both creation and play of a heroquest. By implication, it is written for use with HeroQuest and supported by a full example or two. This emphasises the storytelling aspects of HeroQuest and would actually work with the next article, ‘Location Mythlets’. Here Jane Williams looks at how to take the two-line myths from the Dragon Pass Gazetteer and by answering a few questions—what the Game Masters wants, how to build the myth, how it might differ from the myth’s norm, and how it might all go together. Again, it comes several examples. How a heroquest might differ from the norm is entertainingly illustrated in the first of three pieces of fiction in the issue. This is in Jane Williams’ second contribution to the issue, ‘Lookout Hill’, telling how a heroquest to ensure that the Thunder Brothers burned off the darkness at the foot of the Quivini Mountains became something more. The second piece of fiction, Jeff Richards’ ‘The Seduction of Tarahelera’ tells of what is perhaps a more straightforward heroquest, but is no less entertaining. The third is ‘Using a Charm’, an instructive piece on the nature of dealing with spirits by Greg Stafford.

Perhaps the most fun piece in Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 is ‘Rymes & Ribbolds Royall – The Kings and Queens of the Durulz’. Written by Stewart Stansfield with Keith Nellist, this presents idea that a chronicle of the kings and queens of the wereducks of Dragon Pass was written as a series of comedic poems, most notably by the skald known as Waddlewit. This is supported by three sample excerpts and histories for a particular monarch, as well as the full stats in HeroQuest for the artefacts associated with them. So for example, Holgreema the Rotbane, Queen Starbolt, wanton despot who wooed the river god, performed the Cutting of the Zombie Chain, and cast her left eye into the swamp to watch its borders is accompanied by a write-up of the Chariot of the Gods, Spirits, and Essences of the Creek-Stream River, a water-chariot made from a giant Dragonsnail shell. Typical spirits associated with the chariot are also described. All together a highly entertaining piece of lore.

The interview in Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 is with Jeff Richard. ‘Newt Talks to Jeff Richard’ is a fairly lengthy piece covering a number of subjects, including the then development of HeroQuest 2, as well as Pavis: Gateway to Glorantha, Cults of Sartar, and more. It highlights in the main the intended ease of play of HeroQuest 2 in comparison to the first edition of HeroQuest. As interesting as the interview is in capturing the then state of roleplaying Glorantha—after all, 2008 was a very different time with different publishers—it is not particularly interesting in itself.

The single scenario in Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 is Newt Newport’s ‘Fixing the Wrong’. Set in Dragon Pass, it casts the player characters as either Lunars or Heortlings. Since published in Gloranthan Adventures 1: New Beginnings, it takes place in the former lands of the Hazel Owl clan, which was all but obliterated by the Lunar Empire following an uprising. The Lunar Empire was not without compassion and established a mission house to attend to the refugees who survived, including the then beautiful daughter of Hazel Owl chieftain, Jalhena the Gentle. Driven mad by the experience, in the years since, Jalhena the Gentle has become Jalhena the Hag and a Lunar convert, so when she approaches the neighbouring Birch Shaper clan in order to claim the hand of the chief’s son in marriage, mediators are required. Which is where the Player Characters become involved. The scenario comes with a full cast list, location descriptions, and scenes, including a heroquest. Of course, timewise, this is now a slightly difficult scenario to run, but it could certainly be run as a flashback.

Physically, Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 Summer 2008 is decently presented. It needs a slight edit in places, but is in the main, very readable. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is good—or even excellent in the case of the ducks! Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 Summer 2008 is twelve years old and it shows very much in the choice of gaming systems referenced—though this is generally down with a little touch—and of course, the time frame. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the contents are invalid or useless, the discussion on the nature and construction of heroquests is thoughtful, the fiction entertaining, and the background interesting if not immediately useful. Overall, Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 Summer 2008 is a solidly thoughtful first issue.

Fanzine Focus XI: Hearts in Glorantha Issue 6

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 when 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 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.

The heyday of the RuneQuest fanzine is long past, but with the forthcoming renaissance in roleplaying games set in Glorantha, it is good to see the return of the fanzine, Hearts in Glorantha, after a hiatus of five years. Published by D101 Games, as a fanzine, Hearts in Glorantha has a focus upon adventures and gameable content which the Game Master can bring to her gaming group. Behind its delightfully and aggressively anatine cover, Hearts in Glorantha Issue 6 comes with four adventures—for HeroQuest Glorantha, RuneQuest Classic, and System-less, a little background, and some memories. It is a good mix with content for both veteran Gloranthaphiles and those new to the setting.

It opens with ‘The Awakening’, a system-less adventure by Scott Crowder. In it the adventurers find themselves caught in a dream of the Brown Dragon of Dragon Pass at a point between the Dragonrise and the Dragonkill. Stranded in the lost city of Harna Gamoon amidst an army of Yelmalians they must negotiate their way through the dreamscape to if not change history, then at least set it on another course. This is a scenario that Gloranthaphiles will enjoy as it allows them to both explore a period of Dragon Pass’ history and be its heroes some half a millennium later. The scenario is relatively easy to adapt to the rules of the Game Master’s choice, and would be even simpler to run under HeroQuest Glorantha.

Also for devoted Gloranthaphiles, Barry Blatt’s ‘God Forgot’ details the islands of God Forgot in the Holy Country. Adventurers will need good reason to visit these islands as their inhabitants, the Inagreen, are unwelcoming and stand-offish, preferring visitors to stick to Casino Town or Talar’s Hold with its Foreign Quarter. They have good reason for this, having been the victims of crusade in the Second Age and now their primary contact with the outside world is through the mercenaries of their six ‘Legions’, the military-crime families of the Horali caste which squabble with other over who controls what on the islands and thus who can make donations to them (as they are not allowed to trade). Instead of worshipping gods, the Inagreen muse and philosophise about the Logical Laws, and several volumes devoted to such thinking are given in the article. Given the default point of view in Glorantha is that of the theists of Sartar, this is both a weird and an interesting article to read. It may be used as background for player characters or as a strange place for the player characters to visit, but perhaps a scenario hook or two or ideas on how to create Inagreen characters might have helped with either.

‘Light and Death’, by Neil Smith, takes place in the city of Raibanth in the Heartlands of the Lunar Empire. The player characters are members of same League assigned by their patriarch to protect the architect of a new bridge across the Joat river and further strengthen the ties between Old and New Raibanth. They must deal with protestors, a murder, religious fanatics, and illumination in order to prevent the construction of the bridge from being halted. The scenario comes with five pre-generated characters and is relatively short and linear in structure, so it would work well as a convention scenario. One issue with ‘Light and Death’ is that it is written for use with HeroQuest, First Edition rather than HeroQuest, Second Edition or HeroQuest Glorantha, so the Game Master may need to do adaptation to run it under those rulesets.

‘Memories of RuneQuest 2’ is nice callback for long time Gloranthaphiles, especially since RuneQuest Classic has not long been released. It is followed by the ‘Ian Cooper Interview’, a Question & Answer article with the line editor of HeroQuest. An informative piece, it starts with Ian’s gaming history and involvement in writing Glorantha before coming up to date with the Red Cow Saga—The Coming Storm and The Eleven Lights. Throughout the issue are sprinkled four scenario hooks by Newt Newport, such as ‘One of our Fish is Missing’ in which the player characters must find out what has happened to a village’s magic fish and ‘Hunter’s Tower’, a wilderness encounter with a mysterious structure with one door which opens only to lure game animals inside with sweet music. Each of the quartet comes with three options enabling the Game Master to select the reason as to what is going on. Stuart Mousir-Harrison’s ‘Why the Story is the Best’ is a lovely little vignette which pleasingly highlights the difference between knowledge and story by showing us why Lhankor Mhy knows things and Issaries tells us tales.

Matt Ryan’s ‘The Lightbringers’ Quest’ is written as an introductory HeroQuest adventure to be run and played in one session players both unfamiliar with setting of Glorantha and the mechanics of HeroQuest. It allows the players to roleplay their way through one of greatest of Glorantha’s myths—that of Orlanth the Storm God descending into the Underworld with his companions to free Yelm the Sun God. This is not a Hero Quest in the usual sense of Glorantha, but a ‘God Quest’ in which the player characters are Petty Gods, who will go on the quest on behalf of the Storm God and petition the Sun God for his atonement and friendship. This is a fantastic—in both senses of the word—introduction to the mythology of Glorantha and enables the players to roleplay both interesting characters and situations, which sadly they are unlikely, at least in the case of the characters, to play again. Now of course, this scenario deviates from canonical Glorantha in the sense that it was the Lightbringers who undertook this quest, not the Petty Gods of the player characters. One option here is to have those Petty Gods become the Lightbringers and so deviate further from canonical Glorantha, but another might be to see this quest as essentially a Hero Quest for the gods, a ‘God Quest’ if you will, enforcing the mythology and history of Glorantha in their quest to become Young Gods rather than Petty Gods.

Where ‘The Lightbringers’ Quest’ is problematic is in its use. The players are expected to create their own gods as part of the play through of the scenario and if playing this scenario at home, then this is not an issue. As a convention scenario, which the author suggests it can be ran as, ‘The Lightbringers’ Quest’ is a bit long and overwritten for the traditional four-hour slot they usually run to. Thus, the Game Master may need to do some trimming of the encounters and probably provide some pre-generated gods.

Rounding out Hearts in Glorantha Issue 6 is ‘Duck Hill’. Since there was a Duck on the cover, there had to be a Duck adventure and this scenario by Newt Newport is it. Written for use with RuneQuest Classic, this involves a mad Duck, a Duck day of celebration, and a dungeon. It is short—no pun intended—it is fun, and it is just a bit silly.

Physically, Hearts in Glorantha Issue 6 is a clean and tidy book, decently edited and illustrated. As a forty-eight-page A4-size book, it does not feel all that sturdy though.

Hearts in Glorantha Issue 6 is a packed with good content and content that can be gamed, whatever flavour of mechanics you prefer. There is enough material in its pages to serve as a jumping on point as well as enough to keep veterans of the setting entertained.

A Gloranthan Starter

Published in 2010 by D101 Games, Gloranthan Adventures 1: New Beginnings is a fanzine of adventures set in Glorantha for use with HeroQuest. That said, and despite it being inspired by the fanzine, RQ Adventures, it has the polish of a supplement, an anthology of adventures, rather than the rough and ready feel of a fanzine. It presents a quartet of adventures which can be used singly—on their own or as additions to a Narrator’s campaign or together to form a complete mini-campaign, ‘Weathering the Storm’. As the latter, Gloranthan Adventures 1: New Beginnings serves to introduce players to both HeroQuest and Glorantha, in particular, the conflict between the Sartarite tribes of Dragon Pass and the invading Lunar Empire, perhaps as a lead in to the events detailed in Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes. It is written for use with HeroQuest, Second Edition, but would work relatively easily with HeroQuest Glorantha and is designed to be played by up to six players.

Set in the year 1617, the players are rebels twice over. First, they are rebels fighting against the occupying Lunar Empire forces. Second, they are rebels against their clan, fighting when their clan prefers peace and negotiation to combat. Specifically, they are members of the Silverwind Clan, part of the Colymar tribe, which has the deserved reputation as a Peace Clan and thus few enemies and many friends. In some ways, the clan is feared for its persuasiveness, whether that is in mediation, forging trade routes, or defusing a combat! The player characters though, have eschewed the path of peace and chaffing under the traditions of the clan, have joined the Hidden Gale, a rebel band which has been harassing the local occupying Lunar forces with hit and run tactics. As the campaign opens, the Hidden Gale have been defeated and scattered at the hands of a Lunar regiment called the Silver Shields.

The ‘Weathering the Storm’ campaign begins with ‘Adventure 1: Fortress of Doors’. The player characters have returned home, looking for somewhere to hide after their defeat and conferring with the clan’s council, it is suggested that refuge might be sought in the nearby Fortress of Doors, a fortification dating from the time of the Empire of Wyrms Friends. The first scene gives a good opportunity for the player characters to introduce themselves, the second presents the first of the series of mythic challenges which if done correctly will reinforce both Sartar mythology and the player characters’ as reinforcers of that mythology. This will continue in the second scenario, ‘The Black Ziggurat’, in which the characters seek aid from the Long Ravens, a clan known for its skill in fighting the undead. The clan gains this from its worship of Lerin, a great hero who killed the god of vampirism, Nontraya. Unfortunately, the Long Ravens have fallen prey to an outbreak of undead. If the heroes are defeat this outbreak, then one of them at least must heroform and become Lerin himself to defeat Nontraya once again.

In ‘Fixing the Wrong’, the third scenario, the player characters are shown what might become of the Silverwind Clan if the Lunar Empire was to punish it for insurrection. A decade ago, scarlet-robed Comet Seers brought down the Starfall upon the lands of the Hazel Owl clan and all but obliterated it. The Lunar Empire was not without compassion and established a mission house to attend to the refugees who survived, including the then beautiful daughter of Hazel Owl chieftain, Jalhena the Gentle. Driven mad by the experience, in the years since, Jalhena the Gentle has become Jalhena the Hag and a Lunar convert, so when she approaches the neighbouring Birch Shaper clan in order to claim the hand of the chief’s son in marriage, mediators are required. Thus the player characters are sent as representatives of the Silverwind Clan. This scenario is a step up in terms of set-up and sophistication, involving  interaction, contests, a quest, and a battle. There are more NPCs to interact with, most notably the Lunar missionaries, who will attempt to persuade the Hazel Owl as their cause. This also strengthens another aspect of the scenarios in Gloranthan Adventures 1: New Beginnings in that they can be played using Lunar characters rather than the default Sartarites.

The fourth and last scenario, ‘The Hurt of the Land’, begins with a refugee problem for the Silverwind Clan. Members of the clan have been struck down with disease and the player characters need to decide whether or not to admit them to the clan’s main settlement lest it spread. As that happens, the clan chief is struck down and clues as to the identity of the assassin point to a Chaos blot on the landscape. Confronting this blot literally sees the player characters having to prove themselves in another retelling of an ancient myth.

Beyond the four scenarios themselves, Gloranthan Adventures 1: New Beginnings details Nontraya, Lord of Vampires and his associated cult and gives notes to possible sequels to ‘The Black Ziggurat’, though not the other three scenarios. Six pre-generated characters are provided to support the campaign, but perhaps the most interesting extra in Gloranthan Adventures 1: New Beginnings is ‘Writing Gloranthan Adventures’. This essay takes us step-by-step through the author’s process of writing and scenarios set in Glorantha, in particular, how to use myth as a tool to frame adventures and engage the players and their characters. It is not a definitive guide to the task, but it is a useful one, especially for anyone new to the setting. Of course, it is worth veteran Narrators reading it, if not for the tips and ideas, at least to see how someone else does it.

Physically, Gloranthan Adventures 1: New Beginnings is a slim book. It needs an edit here and there—this at least indicative of the author’s description of the book as being a fanzine—and certainly the Narrator will probably need to carefully unpack each of the NPCs’ various abilities. The artwork varies in quality with the more cartoon-like illustrations being particularly good and capturing the feel of Glorantha.

None of the four scenarios in Gloranthan Adventures 1: New Beginnings should take more than two sessions to complete and really, most of them should only take the one. Their short length makes them easier to bring to the table or to drop into an existing campaign, especially one based in Sartar. On the other hand, the Narrator will have a harder time adjusting to it run using Lunar characters. As an introductory campaign, a taster for the mythology of Sartar and the Orlanthi pantheon and how the heroes become involved in it, Gloranthan Adventures 1: New Beginnings is an excellent starting point for a HeroQuest Glorantha campaign (whether that is Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes or not).

Fanzine Focus VII: From the Shroud Issue 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 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 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 have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry.

From the Shroud is not written for any one of these three retroclones, but for another, Crypts & Things. Published by D101 Games, Crypts & Things is a Swords & Sorcery RPG inspired by Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories—amongst others—and From the Shroud #1 is written to provide support for this roleplaying game, though as with other Old School Renaissance content, it can easily be used with Retroclones. For example, the content in From the Shroud #1 is compatible—in tone as well as in terms of the mechanics—with the content from both Black Pudding #1 and Black Pudding #2. Indeed, From the Shroud #1 includes notes so that it can be adapted to other Retroclones.

From the Shroud #1 began life with the scenario ‘The Secret of Skull Hill’, which was intended to as Halloween support for the then recently published Crypts & Things Remastered. This is a short adventure designed for low to medium Level characters who are lured out to a strange hill—known as Skull Hill—which stands on the very edge of civilised lands, with promises of great treasure. Skull Hill is only the beginning of their adventures, for the player characters will quickly find themselves cast beyond the Shroud that surrounds the Continent of Terror that is their home world and into the last refuge of an alien cult dedicated to returning their God to life—and it is very, very close to succeeding!

‘The Secret of Skull Hill’ is actually quite a short adventure, offering up a session’s worth of play, perhaps two at most. It does feel as if there is an awful lot of set-up and background to get to the point where the players can get involved, so as a consequence there is not a great deal to the adventure, though it is strong on the Weird, especially the technology of the cult.

Beyond ‘The Secret of Skull Hill’, From the Shroud #1 offers a number of interesting articles. The first of these is ‘Achievements’, which offers up an alternative to the array of magical items and gewgaws that grant the player characters abilities and bonuses to be found in Dungeons & Dragons and a great many Retroclones, but not Crypts & Things. Instead it suggests that the Crypt Keeper reward the adventurers with small story awards based upon their achievements in an adventure. For example, in a scenario where the adventurers must make their way over snowy mountain pass and are hounded by wolves all the way up and all the way down, the adventurer who kills the most wolves might be awarded with the ‘Wolf Killer’ achievement, which grants him +1 to hit wolves in combat. As the player characters rise in Level, the benefits from these Achievements become broader rather specific and of course gain in power. This is a rather good way of rewarding the players and their characters and recognises both their successes and their story.

‘By Their Master’s Dark Command: The Role of the Apprentice in Crypts and Things’ is a means to flesh out the motivations, skills, and personalities of sorcerer’s apprentices and so add colour to these NPCs. This is whether they are encountered in the service of a sorcerer or a cult, or hired by an adventuring party, further tables providing options for expected form of payment, means of revenge if betrayed, how they are armed, and their fate should they become too powerful. So for example, Ned was sold into slavery to the Sorcerer as a child and is an idiot savant who remembers and can pull from his memory any spell or ritual he is taught. Unfortunately, he has an unhealthy obsession with dark magic. If he hired, he expects to be paid in gold, if not treasure and should he be betrayed, he will hire a gang of thugs to ambush the player characters. He has managed to fashion a sharp stick to defend himself with, but should he grow too powerful, his master plans to feed Ned special poisonous potions to turn him insane and then into a Thrall.

Ned, Sorcerer’s Apprentice
AC 9 [10], HD 1, HP 4
Sharp stick (1d4)

Should Ned live a long and unhealthy life, perhaps even becoming a sorcerer, there is the possibility that in death he may be mummified and buried in a tomb. The bodies of such mummified sorcerers are often reduced to a dust said to prolong life when ingested. This may be true, but ‘Sorcerer’s Dust’ as this substance is known, has any number of unspoken effects, the least of which is turning the imbiber’s hair green. ‘Sorcerer’s Dust’ is the first of several magical items and monsters related to sorcerers and their apprentices. The others include a ‘Magic Mirror’ into which an apprentice is bound as his master’s eyes in the Shroud; ‘Useful Ghosts’, the spirits of murdered apprentices bound into their master’s service even after death, and ‘Thralls’, muscular guards who were once apprentices, but have been transformed by the sorcerer through black magical rites. This all nicely adds detail to the sorry lives of such apprentices and serve to flesh out a sorcerer’s entourage.

The only contribution to From the Shroud #1 to come from someone other than its publisher, Newt Newport, is ‘’Exotic Liquid Relief’. Written by Neil ‘Captain Machine’ Shaw, it expands upon one of the means of healing in Crypts & Things—the imbibing of good alcohol! Seven such drinks are given, including ‘Red Raptor Vodka’, brewed by the Sorcerer Japlin Pred and favoured by the great warriors of the local tribes. It grants both healing and the benefit that the drinker inflicts extra damage with the first blow in the next fight he is involved in! The great many sacrifices made around the City of Earth means that the fruit used to brew ‘Blood Apple Cider’ is infused with a bloody red hue and grant it extra healing potency. Again, this adds to the verisimilitude of the world of Zarth and its hard-fighting, hard-drinking inhabitants.

Crypts & Things includes a table of Life Events which helps create a background for each player character. From the Shroud #1 offers a further set of similar tables that can be used in any Retroclone. They include tables of ‘Generic Life Events’, ‘Useful Items of the Kindly Ones’ (the Kindly Ones being former inhabitants of Zarth, now long gone), and ‘Things to Find in Great Pots’ (giant clay pots are found all over and under Zarth). The first obviously fleshes out a player character’s background, whilst the latter two add interesting items in their ways respectively. For example, the Cudgel of Giving always ensures that someone will give you their money when you threaten them, whilst pot might contain sour wine, gold pieces, a corpse, and worse. Stories of course can be built such items.

Lastly, ‘The Tea Party of Doom’ provides a Weird encounter deep in the woods where an insane Tea Master literally uses the Hold Person spell to hold tea parties at which the guests are forced to drink the concoctions he brews. In particular, he brews tea from the rainbow coloured secretions which ooze from the hindquarters of psychedelic toads! Once held in place, there is a ‘Toad Effects Table’ for the Crypt Keeper to roll to determine what happens to the player characters. This is a bit of dark whimsy that would just as easily work in the Dolmenwood setting as detailed in the Wormskin fanzine.

Physically, From the Shroud #1 is reasonably well laid out. The artwork is decent if used several times and the cartography, being by Glynn Seal of MonkeyBlood Design is of course excellent. It should go without saying that being a D101 Games product, that it does need another edit.

In general, From the Shroud #1 shines when exploring the little details that bring out the flavour of the Swords & Sorcery setting. Many of these little things will also work in the Retroclone of your choice. Otherwise, From the Shroud #1 is a serviceable entry in the wide array of fanzines available to the Old School Renaissance.

Things Better Than Crypts

UKM1: Tomb of the Necromancers is a scenario for Crypts & Things, the Swords & Sorcery inspired variant of Mythmere Games’ Swords & Wizardry published by D101 Games. Designed for four to six characters of Sixth to Eighth Level, Tomb of the Necromancers takes place in the north of the Continent of Terrors default setting. There the ruins of the Unknown City sit at the edge of the Death Wind Steppe, surrounded by the foothills of the Wolf Head Mountains. Now all that stands in the ruins is the fishing village of Tetronis, protecting the secrets of the great and terrible, but now lost, god known as Orlusz—and his worship.

The player characters are hired to explore a hidden building below the ruins surrounding Tetronis. By the time they reach the village, someone has got there before the adventurers and put many of its inhabitants to the sword. Thus the party will need to deal with this problem if its erstwhile employer is to be found and its members are to progress into the dungeon. This has some nasty moments and fun encounters and these have the grim feeling of the Conan tales. Once they get past these—plus a well handled revelation—Tomb of the Necromancers becomes a whole lot less interesting. The dungeon of the scenario’s title is bland in comparison, barring an encounter or two. The whole of the dungeon feels like it should be baroque and ornate, but it is far from that. 

Unfortunately, in terms of physical presentation and production, Tomb of the Necromancers has a number of issues. Whilst the artwork is good, the scenario’s cartography is inconsistent—the map of the village is much, much better than that of the dungeon. In fact, the map of the dungeon is just simply bland. Worse, the scenario reads like a first draft and really, really needs a good edit. Barring a couple of issues, the poor editing will not get in the way of running the adventure, but without it, Tomb of the Necromancers is just not as professional as it should be.

Further, Tomb of the Necromancers is a scenario of two halves. The first half, getting to the village of Tetronis and dealing with the threats and dangers above ground is more interesting than the second half, that is, the dungeon below which never quite rises above being just another Dungeons & Dragons dungeon. This is primarily because above ground scenes make much more use of Crypts & Things’ Continent of Terrors setting. Despite these issues and the lack of a professional presentation, Tomb of the Necromancers is welcome as an adventure for higher level adventurers.

-oOo-

D101 Games will be at UK Games Expo.

Coming Together

Reunion is the first scenario for River of Heaven: Science-Fiction Roleplaying in the 28th Century, the near Transhuman Space Opera RPG published by D101 Games. Designed for four to six players, it is an introductory adventure that can be used as a one-off scenario, a convention scenario, or as the starting point for a campaign. They take the roles of crewmembers serving aboard the interstellar stepship, the Cape Verde, a vessel owned by House Harper-Yung, one of the ruling families on Jericho. Of course like any stepship, all interstellar piloting and navigation functions are carried out by a Pilot’s Guild provided Stepdaughter, who is literally plugged into the ship.

As Reunion opens, the crewmembers are waking up from Vitrification, the means of cryopreserving both passengers and crew for the long, typically years’ long, voyages between star systems. This is typically an unpleasant experience, those put under usually suffering from nausea, disorientation, and even temporary sleep sickness. Fortunately, the crew are trained to overcome these symptoms and quickly realise that something is amiss… First, the medical team that would usually be on hand to help revive them is not present. Second, they are in zero-g—which means that the ship is not accelerating. So where is the medical team and what has happened to the rest of the crew? Further, what is going on with the Cape Verde?

The truth of the matter is that the Cape Verde has been attacked and boarded. To say more would be to spoil the scenario, but the player character crew members need to find out by whom and why as well as what has happened to the rest of the crew. In doing so, they not only get to explore their stepship from nose to tail, they may also discover a deep, dark secret at the heart of River of Heaven. The player characters are free to pursue the plot in Reunion however they like, though much of the plot will proceed unless they intervene. There will certainly be locations aboard the Cape Verde that the player characters will want to visit—the bridge being an obvious example—and the scenario does include certain encounters to that end. For the most part, the scenario and its plot are location based, but this will diminish as the actions of the player character crew members impinge upon the plot. 

To support this set-up and plot, Reunion includes descriptions of, and deckplans for, the Cape Verde, plus the vessels used by the scenario’s adversaries. Also given are the stats and write-ups for the NPCs, both the crew members of the Cape Verde and of the adversary vessels. Last of all are the character sheets for the six pre-generated player characters.

Physically, Reunion is slightly underwhelming as the deckplans for the various spaceships and starships feel just a little too basic. The deckplans do break the book’s text as otherwise there are no illustrations. In places, Reunion could also do with another edit.

Reunion is a scenario in which the player characters really do need to be proactive in pursuing the mystery at its heart. If they prevaricate, there is every chance that they will find themselves adrift and potentially be unable to get back to civilisation. This is not so much of an issue in a one-shot or convention scenario, but in one intended as the start of a campaign…? Other than this, Reunion is a solidly done scenario with potential for some good action and revelations at the heart of the setting for River of Heaven.