[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] The Travellers’ Digest #4

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. However, not all fanzines written with the Old School Renaissance in mind need to be written for a specific retroclone. Although not the case now, the popularity of Traveller would spawn several fanzines, of which The Travellers’ Digest, published by Digest Group Publications, was the most well known and would eventually transform from a fanzine into a magazine.

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

To best run ‘The Grand Tour’, the Referee will need access to The Atlas of the Imperium, Supplement 8: Library Data (A-M), Supplement 11: Library Data (N-Z), Supplement 7: Traders and Gunboats (or alternatively, Supplement 5: Azhanti High Lightning), as well as the core rules. In addition, other supplements would be required depending on the adventure. Of course, that was in 1985, and much, if not all, of the rules or background necessary have been updated since. The campaign is also specifically written for use with four pre-generated Player Characters. They consist of Akidda Laagiir, the journalist who won the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award; Dur Telemon, a scout and his nephew; Doctor Theodor Krenstein, a gifted-scientist and roboticist; and Doctor Krenstein’s valet, ‘Aybee’, or rather, ‘AB-101’. The fact is, AB-101 is a pseudo-biological robot, both protégé and prototype. Consequently, the mix of Player Characters are surprisingly non-traditional and not all of them are easily created used the means offered in Traveller or MegaTraveller. This is addressed within various issues of the fanzine.

The Travellers’ Digest #4 was also published in February, 1986 and moved the date on from 335-1101, the 335th day of the 1101st year of the Imperium, to 324-1101, the 324th day of the 1101st year of the Imperium. The opening ‘Editors’ Digest’ comes with what would have been then good news. The Travellers’ Digest #3 announced that the publisher would have the supplement Grand Survey by J. Andrew Keith ready for Origins ’86 in Los Angeles. The editorial confirms this and that there would be further coverage in The Travellers’ Digest #5. In addition, Game Designers Workshop would be publishing Traveller Book 8: Robots, written by Digest Group Publications.

The fourth part of ‘The Grand Tour’ in The Travellers’ Digest #4 is ‘Feature Adventure 4: The Gold of Zurrian’, written by editor Gary L. Thomas. In addition to the standard books required by the campaign, the books Alien Module 3, Vargr, Adventure 11: Murder on Arcturus Station, Adventure 13: Signal GK, and the article ‘Jumpspace’ from Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society, No. 24. As a result of the events in ‘Feature Adventure 3: Tourist Trap’ in the previous issue, the Player Characters were knighted and are now on their way to Capitol, the heart of the Third Imperium where they will be formally ennobled by the emperor. They are travelling aboard the Gold of Zurrian, a Tukera Lines 1000-ton long-liner from the world of Gishuli in the Voskhod subsector of Vland Sector to Iren in the Kagamira Subsector of Vland Sector in the Domain of Vland. All have High Passages and the scenario opens all four are in the ship’s Starlight Lounge where they meet some very interesting fellow passengers. This includes Onggzou, a Vargr diplomat and high-ranking member of the Church of the Chosen Ones, the Marquis and Marchioness of Gemid, the provocative and highly successful journalist Terra Porphyry, and Arde Le, a retired Tukera Lines executive and his partner, Melissa Diimish, a minor actress. Terra Porphyry either knows or knows of virtually everyone aboard. She and Doctor Theodor Krenstein were once engaged; she has written controversial books about the Church of the Chosen Ones and the Scout Service, including Dur Telemon and the captain of the Gold of Zurrian; and she wants to write about the Marquis and Marchioness of Gemid, as well as the newly ennobled Player Characters. She is also involved in a messy divorce with Arde Le. Almost every has reason to hate her, which explains why almost immediately after the long-liner enters Jump space, she is found dead!

With the Gold of Zurrian in Jump space, the Marquis of Gemid, as ranking noble aboard ship has seven days to solve the murder and the number one suspect is AB-101! Because the Marquis of Gemid is lazy, this should default to the Player Characters. Presented in a linear fashion, what this adventure is, is effectively a combination of a ‘locked room’ murder mystery in a ‘ship in a bottle’ episode! It is more of a serviceable adventure than a good adventure, a classic murder mystery that would work well in any Science Fiction setting as much as it does in Traveller. Its main problem is that whilst the solution makes sense, actually getting to it is not as easy as it should be, especially considering brevity of the plot and the fact that the scenario should really take more than two or sessions to play through. And whilst it does offer a change of pace from the previous scenarios in ‘The Grand Tour’, it is an obvious plot to run aboard a starship in Jumpspace when normally, the time spent travelling from one star system to another is ignored.

As with previous issues, ‘Feature Adventure 4: The Gold of Zurrian’ is very well supported. Not just with details of all four Player Characters as is standard, plus the explanation of the Universal Task Profile, but also full stats and details of all of the NPCs in the scenario and full details and deckplans of the Tukera Lines 1000-ton long-liner. Drawn by Guy Garnett, the deckplans are given a pullout in the centre of the fanzine. There is a list too, of the clues for the murder mystery that the Player Characters can search for in the Library Data, though it makes clear that this is a slow process even by the standards of the day! There is even a full write-up of the Church of the Chosen Ones, more cult than proper church, and it should be noted that the Vargr diplomat in ‘Feature Adventure 4: The Gold of Zurrian’, Onggzou, comes across as too polished and just not Vargr-like...

As part of its continued exploration of the Third Imperium along the route taken by ‘The Grand Tour’, The Traveller’s Digest #4 details the Kagamira subsector of the Vland sector with Nancy Parker providing some library data for the Vand sector. Much of this pertains to the scenario in the issue, such as the description of the word of Daama in the Anarsi sector, a non-aligned world renowned for being a haven for smugglers and a source of blackmarket goods, ineffectually governed by the so-called Marquis of Gemid—who appears in the scenario, and Zurrian in the Vland being the source of the famous iridescent surshi cloth.

The issue also continues the fanzine’s development by Joe D. Fugate Sr. of the Universal Task Profile that would later appear in Game Designer Workshop’s MegaTraveller in 1987. As the name suggests, the aim of the Universal Task Profile was to provide a coherent and consistent means of handling skills and actions in the roleplaying game. And the fanzine has been developing this over the course of the four issues and here it reaches the subject of ‘Accidents and Mishaps’. The article highlights what the Universal Task Profile is trying to avoid and that is seeding an adventure with a series of ‘mini-situations’, each one handling by a slightly different means of resolution. It would then have been a relatively modern drive away from the ‘individual rulings’ style of play, one that the more nostalgic sector of the hobby often still harks back to. The article is well thought through and there is a good example of how it works and how it works when the players fail their rolls.

Given that a crime is committed in ‘Feature Adventure 4: The Gold of Zurrian’, it makes sense that the last part of The Traveller’s Digest #4 is devoted to law enforcement, though of course, none of the Player Characters will benefit from it because they are not officers of the law and because they do not have any forensics training! ‘Law Enforcers – A New Character Type’ by Robert Parker provides a new Career, the police officer, noting that for worlds with a Law Level of ‘E’ or more, the Marine Career is more appropriate as law enforcement is paramilitary in nature. It is obviously good for creating NPCs, ex-police officers, and even private detectives, and it adds two new skills. These are ‘Interview’ and ‘Forensic’, with the latter being quite detailed. It is a solid addition and a version of the Career would appear in MegaTraveller and subsequent versions of the roleplaying game.

Lastly, ‘Forensic Science – Traveller Tech Brief’ by Robert and Nancy Parker looks at forensic science in the Science Fiction setting of Traveller. This is a solid overview, looking in particular at the use of the ‘volitile chemical molecular analyser’ or ‘sniffer’ at Tech Level 12 and above in the use of crime analysis, and noting also that the blood groups differ not just between Aslan, Droyne, and Vargr, but also between the various groups of Humaniti, including Solomani, Vilani, and Zhodani. Different types of evidence are also discussed, focusing on that left behind by individuals and on that left behind by weapons, since after all, the sorts of crimes investigated by Player Characters tend to be violent, if not deadly. Of course, the article really is only of use if a Player Character was a member of law Enforcement or the Game Master is running a campaign focused on law enforcement, though it could come in to play if the Player Characters get into trouble with law enforcement, which has been known to happen…

Physically, The Travellers’ Digest #4 is, as with all of the issues so far, very obviously created using early layout software. The artwork is not great, but it does its job and it is far from dreadful. The deckplans are very good. Whilst it looks slightly rough by modern standards, this would have looked clean and semi-professional at the time.

The Travellers’ Digest #4 is not an improvement on The Travellers’ Digest #3, which was an improvement on The Travellers’ Digest #2. The issue feels as if it is waiting to move on to bigger things, primarily because ‘Feature Adventure 4: The Gold of Zurrian’ takes place between the usual avenues of adventure and because it does not push the plot of ‘The Grand Tour’ along, but rather put it on hold. The rest of the content in the issue is decent though and there is content here that would go be incorporated into Traveller canon. The Travellers’ Digest #4 is a serviceable issue rather than a good one.

[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] The Valley Out of Time: Danger Valley

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game from Goodman Games. Some of these fanzines provide fantasy support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but others explore other genres for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One such fanzine is The Valley Out of Time.

The Valley Out of Time is a six-part series published by Skeeter Green Productions. It is written for use with both the Dungeon Crawl Classics RolePlaying Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, ‘The Valley Out of Time’ is a ‘Lost Worlds’ style setting a la X1 The Isle of Dread, and films such as The Land that Time Forgot, The Lost World, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, One Million years, B.C., and others, plus the artwork of Frank Frazetta. Combining dinosaurs, Neanderthals, and a closed environment, it is intended to be dropped into a campaign with relative ease and would work in both a fantasy campaign or a post-apocalyptic campaign. It could even work as a bridge between the two, with two different possible entries into ‘The Valley Out of Time’, one from a fantasy campaign and one from a post-apocalyptic campaign.

The Valley Out of Time: Danger Valley is the third issue in the series and it is difficult to describe just how disappointing this issue actually is. Then again, the second issue, The Valley Out of Time: Exploring the Valley, was almost as disappointing. What the series promises is set out on the back cover: “The Valley Out of Time is a series of ’zine-sized adventures from SGP. This valley can be placed in any ongoing campaign, and is set in the “Neanderthal Period” of development. Huge monsters – both dinosaurs and otherwise – and devolved humanoids plague the area, and only the hardiest of adventurers will prevail!” The key word here is ‘adventure’. There is not a single adventure in the issue of the fanzine. An adventure has a plot and interaction and motivation and other elements that the players and their characters can grasp and engage with. The Valley Out of Time: Danger Valley does not offer any that. What it does give is a series of fights with some prehistoric monsters, which vary between the Player Characters noticing something over a hill which turns out to be a monster that will attack them and coming upon a fight between two monsters in which they can decide to help one side or the other or run away. All start with the Player Characters wandering through this lost valley and coming across what they are—encounters. They are not adventures and the author even confirms this by describing several of them as an ‘encounter’. The question is, why does the author promise the reader adventures, only to deliver one combat encounter after another, and then to compound them all, make them boring?

Worse, having provided full stats for the monsters in the encounters, the author gives the monsters full write-ups in the first of the issue’s appendices. Why? Why repeat material when there is such a limited page count?

The problems continue with the framing of what the fanzine is. Under ‘Hooks/Motivations’, the author writes. “These ’zines offer a “mini-setting” with some quick and dirty encounters, locations, and obstacles to help fill in a night (or two) of gaming when other plans go astray.” To be fair, this issue offers some encounters—a fight with some Xoth-man raiders, a fight with a cave giant, a fight with some axe beaks, and so on. All nine of them. But not locations or obstacles, and definitely, definitely not a setting, ‘mini’ or otherwise. There is no map, there is no sense of place, in fact, there are no places, and there is barely anyone to interact with—and when there is, the motivations of the NPCs are scarcely touched upon. The author does tell the reader that the NPCs’ village is a good source of rumours and campaign hooks, but not what those might be.

Penultimately, there is some flavour text in the second appendix. ‘The Timeless Valley’ is a short creation myth told to some of the peoples within a lost valley. It may or may not be a foundation myth of the ‘Valley Out of Time’ of the fanzine’s title, but it is engaging and it is interesting and used in conjunction with the some of the people of the valley, it would add to their background. So, the next question is, why is the author not using this to create a setting and to bring the ‘Valley Out of Time’ of the fanzine’s title to life instead of shovelling out one prosaic monster fight after another?

Lastly, The Valley Out of Time: Danger Valley includes three pages left blank for ‘GM Notes’. Three whole pages where the author could have been providing the mini-setting that the issue promised or even an actual encounter that had scope for roleplaying and interaction rather than just another boring fight. Or alternatively, this could be seen as the author being kind enough to leave a space in fanzine for the Judge to write down some details of an actual setting or even an adventure that he steadfastly refuses to provide as promised.

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

If the Judge is looking for a collection of fights with prehistoric monsters to pitch at her players, then The Valley Out of Time: Danger Valley is perfect. However, if the Judge wants more than fights and monsters, wants adventures and setting, wants content around which she can build her own campaign, then The Valley Out of Time: Danger Valley is a frustrating failure. Which sadly, is due to the author’s broken promises.

[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] The Chaos Crier, Issue #1

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

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

The Chaos Crier: An Aperiodical Zine for Black Sword Hack and Other Swords & Sorcery Games, is like the name suggests, a supplement for Black Sword Hack. This is the adaptation of The Black Hack, designed and published by The Merry Mushmen, to emulate the fantasy tales and style of the Eternal Champion—Elric, Corum, et al, by Michael Moorcock. The Chaos Crier, Issue #0 was published as part of the Kickstarter campaign for the Black Sword Hack, but now, The Merry Mushmen has published a full, proper issue, The Chaos Crier, Issue #1.

Like its forbear, The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 is cramped and dense, very much a packed affair, but unlike its forbear, it has a lot more content—a lot more. It includes new monsters, new backgrounds, new factions, and more, mostly notably nine adventures and a return to the city of Nijmauwrgen, previously introduced in The Chaos Crier, Issue #0. This first proper issue of The Chaos Crier describes itself as “…[A] pocket grimoire to feed your world ending campaign with tons of material.”, and there can be no doubt that it lives up to this.

The issue opens with ‘Alternative Backgrounds’ by Troll Mechanik. This gives new ‘Origins’ that a Game master can add to her campaign or build a campaign around, including ‘Primitive Origin’, ‘Nomadic Origin’, ‘Otherworldly Origin’, ‘Feudal Origin’, and ‘Faerie Origin’. Each comes with tables for where the Player Character was born, their Background, and their Weapons. This is a great addition which kicks off the rules sections throughout the issue. Nobboc’s ‘More Monsters’ includes ‘Angel Faces’, giant bats with human baby heads, the aggressive ‘Red Crows’ with blood-red beaks, and ‘Selenite Renegades’, pariahs from the Flotsam Kingdom who have formed a mercenary company and who have large golden eyes and blue skins covered in chitin, and speak in lisping tones. Entries such as ‘The Thing in the Well’ and ‘Ghouls of the Dream Realms’ add a touch of cosmic horror. ‘The Stars Seer’ is an ‘Otherworldy Entity’ and encounter by Tore Nielsen. They can be summoned from their house on a jagged star to answer a single question, but there is a price to be paid, which could be having to polish the Seer’s claws to a high sheen or the questioner losing his tongue!

Eric Nieudan’s ‘The Dominion of Might’ details a Law-aligned ‘Faction’. This is the island kingdom of Myonne which has united its neighbours under the banner of Law and under the leadership of Queen Joosyën XVII, a Champion of Law who deposed her corrupt brother, has sent her Army of Might to coerce and then if necessary, conquer the nations beyond and share in her vision for peace. It is nicely detailed, from the top down, from Queen Joosyën XVII all the way down to minor nobles and inn keepers, forces that the Player Characters might encounter, and both plots and hooks to get them involved as well as events that can occur whilst they are in Dominion territory. This is a big faction and element that the Game Master can add to her campaign and the combination of hooks and events can really pull the Player Characters into their orbit or just have them as a looming threat in said campaign.

It is complemented—in part—by ‘Follow the Code’ by Lars Huijbregts that suggests ways in which an order, sorority, or secret society might act in different circumstances according to doctrine. Covering large conflicts, small happenstances, and who might be evil. None of which are meant to be logical or make sense, but together the Game Master can use them to create a doctrine for an organisation, which could be The Dominion of Might, but could be other organisations just as easily. Eric Nieudan’s ‘Into the Dream Realms’ adds a whole new dimension and a further dash of Lovecraftian horror with the means for the Player Characters to enter the Dream Realm. How it can be entered or left is discussed and there is a table of possible features—really only the start when it comes to dream realms, but the major change is the replacing of the Player Characters’ Doom Die with a Dream Die. It enables a Player Character to interact with the Dream world mechanically, even allowing him to take control of the dream at a cost of the Dream Die being stepped down in size. The downside is if the Dream Die is depleted, it is replaced by the Player Character’s Doom Die and whatever happens in the Dream World affects his physical body too!

‘The Purple Desert’ by Chris Gardiner is a ‘Location’, which could be another world that has fallen to constant grind of the war between Law and Chaos or it could be a dream world. The Player Characters arrive half-buried in the purple sands in the shadow of the head of an enormous statue, whilst in the sky, three broken moons—sallow pink, wet blue, and frail violet—hang and let their essences pour onto the sands. The Player Characters have to find their way out of this desert and onto their destination world and may encounter a brash NPC who hides a few secrets of her own. The presence of the Player Characters will attract the attention of Rag-Wraiths, that initially have no form, but in fighting the Player Characters will emulate their attributes and eventually try to replace them. ‘The Purple Desert’ is an engagingly otherworldly through place, somewhere in between.

The first of the adventures in The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 is Kobayashi’s ‘Bloody Roots’. After hearing rumours of villages sucked into sinkholes, the Player Characters find themselves and the inn where they are staying also being sucked below the earth. Here they find themselves trapped and potential prisoners of the underground Chthonian Empire and they have to find their way out. It is a quick and dirty affair, easy to prepare and set up. It is supported by a short ‘Faction’ guide to the Chthonian Empire, which gives a few options, plus descriptions of the factions who either want to invade the surface world, ally with the surface world, or remain hidden, and stats for various NPCs and monsters. Together it can be run as a one-off scenario or worked into the Game Master’s campaign. The second adventure is ‘Evakius’ Retreat’ by Andrea Gino, which presents a renegade alchemist whose experiments into transforming living creatures through alchemy have led to several disasters and have driven him out of town to take up refuge in an old salt mine. This is presented in cross section and the adventure is supported with decent hooks that will get the Player Characters to investigate the mine and discover just how much trouble Evakius has got himself into! Nobboc’s ‘The Star Envoy’ is a mini-hexcrawl that sees the Player Characters hunting for a twelve-pointed star which has fallen to earth in a small valley instead of attending a planning strategy meeting with Murligen the Wise. The Player Characters might be hired by Murligen the Wise or Zararazarat the Wicked Mage depending upon whether they align with Law or Chaos. Finding the envoy is not enough though as it has lost possessions which it wants back before it will fully co-operate. It is detailed and should provide several sessions of decent gaming.

The highlight of The Chaos Crier, Issue #0 was ‘The Darkness over Nijmauwrgen’, a description of city-port under the thrall of Cult of Dagon. The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 returns to the city of Nijmauwrgen and again, written by Evelyn Moreaux, it is the highlight of the issue, again. ‘The Sunken Moon’ describes a faction in the city which cultivate ‘Moon Urchins’ imported from another world and milks them for their toxin. This is distilled into an elixir which if given to Deep One Hybrid frees them from the urge to transform and blindly serve Dagon—they are given a choice. Both the forces of ‘The Sunken Moon’ and their leader, ‘Mavara’, are detailed as are their facilities and hooks to get the Player Characters involved in ‘Moonlight over Nijmauwrgen’. This is in addition to not one, but two scenarios set in Nijmauwrgen. In ‘The Sad Ancient One’, the Player Characters must descend into the reef off the city and locate ancient and all but forgotten Deep One matriarch and give her the elixir before the Cult of Dagon realise what they are doing, whilst in ‘The Call of the Nautilid’, they receive a psychic distress call from Marava herself. The Cult of Dagon is taking its revenge and whilst Marava is caught up in a battle of her own, the Player Characters must race to keep her alive. Both are exciting scenarios, if linear, and both enable the Player Characters to get further involved in the events in and around Nijmauwrgen.

The issue comes to a close with two final adventures. In the first, the Player Characters definitely find themselves in the Dream Realm in ‘The Sleeper in the Babbling Citadel’ by Eric Nieudan. It is both a short one-session scenario and a mini-setting that the Player Characters can return to after completing the scenario. The involves them exploring the Crimson Caverns originally dug out by Tunneller Titans and in this dry, dusty world climb to a blizzard enshrouded citadel and free the god within. Which it turns out is a wind god, also known as Ithaqua! Nobboc’s ‘Deep in the Salt Mine’ is the second of these two final adventures, oddly inspired by a RuneQuest adventure that the author can recall the name of. It begins with the Player Characters being enslaved and working out in salt mine. The Player Characters are free to try and escape, instigate a rebellion, and so on, but in the process, they discover dark secrets hidden beyond the mine. These are both decent adventures, with ‘Deep in the Salt Mine’ being suitable as a beginning scenario as it gets all of the the Player Characters together!

Physically, The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 is ably presented. It is busy in places, but the artwork is excellent. The depiction of the Purple Desert in ‘The Purple Desert’ is particularly good.

Every time Reviews from R’lyeh receives a package from The Merry Mushmen, there is the anticipation that what that package contains is going to be good, even very good. The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 is no exception. It is packed with good stuff and all of it playable and easy to add to a Game Master’s campaign. The Black Sword Hack Game Master should definitely have The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 and The Chaos Crier, Issue #0 because the two do complement each other. Perhaps that is the only downside to The Chaos Crier, Issue #1, in that it does need the other issue to really work as well as it can. Overall, The Chaos Crier, Issue #1 provides support for Black Sword Hack that is not only good, but also entertaining.

[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] Scout Magazine #I

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a non-professional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

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

Scout Magazine is a fanzine that comes packed with content that the Game Master can add to her Old School Essentials or change how it is played. This is no matter whether she uses the basic rules of Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy or the advanced options of Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy. Although specially written for use with Old School Essentials, it is easily adapted to the retroclone of Game Master’s choice or even added to Dolmenwood, the setting and retroclone also published by Necrotic Gnome.

Scout Magazine #I was published in July, 2023 by PBenardo. It includes four new Classes, over thirty new magical items, an array of new rules, and articles that explore crime, criminal activities, and punishment. The four Classes start with the Necrourge, something somewhere between the living and the dead, able to walk silently through crypts, strike enemies for an Energy Drain attack that increases the Necrourge’s Strength, hold its breath for an hour, pass as Undead with other Undead, use necromantic scrolls, and possesses all of the resistances and susceptibilities of the Undead, whilst retainers and mercenaries are reluctant to enter its employment. It is an underwhelming start for the fanzine, as the new Class is not that interesting and does not offer a great deal of game play except possibly in campaigns where darker and more evil characters are the norm. The same is true of the second Class, the Crone, but it has more game play to it. The Crone can give herself an illusory appearance once per day, but to do anything else, she must gorge on the fresh remains of humanoid creatures daily in a ‘Cursed Feast’. This is a disturbing sight for anyone watching, including humans, demihumans, and humanoid monsters, and retainers who witness it, have to make a Loyalty check. The ‘Cursed Feast’ restores the Crone’s ‘Bag of Souls’, from which she can cast reversed versions of the Divine spells from the Cleric’s list. Each spell Level cast costs a number of points from the ‘Bag of Souls’. The total number of points in the ‘Bag of Souls’ is equal to the Crone’s Level. Effectively then, the ‘Bag of Souls’ acts as a spell point mechanic for the Crone. Add the Crone’s ability to temporarily enchant items and create a Coven at Ninth Level and whilst a dark, chaotic Class, there is flavour to it that enhances the game play. The Crone also lends itself as the basis for good NPCs.

There have been many variants of the Merchant as a Class, but the version in Scout Magazine #I is all about people. The Merchant gains more rumours than other Classes, learns extra languages, and as a salesman, gains a bonus when bargaining, buying, and selling. He also has the Appraise skill and can join a merchant guild network and eventually open a branch of the guild. Hiring and shipping is cheaper and easier as a guild member. The interesting element of the Class is that the Merchant can build long term relationships with his retainers. The more Levels a retainer gains in a Merchant’s employ, the more his morale improves and beyond that, his Hit Points! This version of the Class does a good job of widening the gaming potential of the role.

Similarly, the Swashbuckler is not a new Class, although this version is. The Swashbuckler can retreat without incurring an Armour Class penalty and replaces his Strength with his Dexterity as you would expect for attack rolls and damage. Thieves tends to be loyal to the Swashbuckler more so than other retainers and if the Game Master is using the optional parrying rule for Old School Essentials, the Swashbuckler doubles his Dexterity bonus for to parry. If an attack against a Swashbuckler misses, he can riposte, though this is at a increasing penalty for each failed attack in a Round. Swashbuckler skills include Climb Sheer Surfaces, Hear Noise, Move Silently, and Pick Pockets. This version of the Swashbuckler is decent enough, more thief or pirate than musketeer.

The ‘Magic Items’ section does a nice line in named and interesting weapons. For example, Sword +1, Lifegiver is a cursed weapon sword said to have belonged to a selfless saint that is a -2 weapons versus humanoids, but increases its damage die against undead, and can revive someone if they have not been dead for more than a single Turn, but this costs the wielder permanent points of Constitution. There are not just swords described, but also daggers and longbows, and more, as well as miscellaneous items like the Crown Of Spell Absorption which has an empty slot for a gem and when there is a gem placed in the slot, it absorbs spells, the more valuable the gem, the more Levels of spells it can absorb, or the Scoundrel’s Rabbit Foot, said to have belonged to a disreputable outlaw, which enables the owner’s player to ask for a single dice roll to be made again once per day, but also gives the entire party of Player Characters a foul presence, makes them look like criminals to non-Chaotic retainers, and secretly, shift’s the owner’s Alignment to Chaotic. Many of these items are more complex than the average magical item, but then there is more depth and detail to what they can do and how they can make play interesting.

The ‘Optional Rules’ offer a wide range of additions to standard play of Old School Essentials. They start with ‘New Class Abilities’. These are for Classes for both Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy, so ‘Race as Class’ and ‘Race and Class’. For the Barbarian Class, the ‘Berserker’ ability adds the Constitution bonus to Armour Class, whilst also adding a movement bonus, can inflict ‘Brutal Blows’ at a cost of Armour Class reduction, and ‘War Cry’ forces a Morale check on the enemy when committing a charge attack. For the Ranger, ‘Ambusher’ grants an attack and damage bonus on surprised creatures, ‘Pass Without Trace’ removes movement penalties in difficult terrain and means a Ranger leaves no trace of his movement, and the alternative ‘Tracking’ rule accounts for both the Ranger’s Level and the age of the tracks. Not every Class is given new options, but what is given here expands the Classes in interesting ways.

‘Useful Rulings’ provides quick solutions to common situations, such as clearing a jump, curses, diseases, ability drain, hunger and thirst, and more. There is even a quick and dirty guide to handling insanity for settings influenced by the Cthulhu Mythos. In such a setting, a Player Character who fails a saving throw against madness is forever touched by the mythos. If failed, the Player Character suffers nightmares and sleep deprivation, but gains the capacity to better understand and even use knowledge and powers related to the Mythos. The number of times a Player Character can fail a saving throw versus madness is equal to his Wisdom bonus. Unfortunately, the rules do not clearly explain if a Player Character can go insane, so they are a bit too quick and dirty.

‘Dirty Deeds’ takes the Player Characters to the black market where they can buy goods from shady dealers. The latter have to be found first and the effort runs the risk of the Player Characters being ratted out to the authorities. It includes a list of dusts, oils, and tinctures, hemlock dust, peace lily compound oil, and rainbow cactus tincture, some of which a shady dealer might have for sale and if not, another shady dealer might have others. The list restricts itself to poisons and drugs, so it is limited in scope and there is no discussion of possible other goods or even services that a shady dealer might have for sale. Nevertheless, useful for the Thief and the Assassin Classes—and other ne’er-do-wells, as well developing the seamier side of towns and cities in the Game Master’s campaign. The last article in the issue complements this one. ‘Designing Poisons’ enables the Game Master to expand or design the range of poisons available in her campaign. It uses a pair of templates to help the Game Master to create deadly poisons and paralytic agents. It is fairly simple to use and all the Game Master has to do is add colour and detail to the various concoctions.

Should such ne’er-do-wells, though, get arrested and thrown in gaol, ‘Crime And Punishment’ is there to settle the matter. Determining the judgement is a simple matter of rolling two six-sided dice, the lower the result the more severe the punishment and if the player rolls nine or more, his character goes free. The roll is modified by the severity of the crime—the article includes a long list of them under its ‘Code Legal’, plus bribes and skill of the legal representation. The roll determines the judgement and there are suggested sentences for every number, from eight down to minus one. The former may result in a fine, short sentence, or confiscation of arms, whilst the later definitely results in execution. The system is short and dirty, but serviceable.

Physically, Scout Magazine #I is tidily presented. It is very lightly illustrated.

Scout Magazine #I provides the Game Master and her players with a lot of new content. Some of it, such as the Necrourge and Crone Classes have limited use, whilst all of it is optional. Much of it will add detail to a campaign, but some cases, such as the new and alternative Class abilities and the ‘Useful Rulings’, this means adding extra complexity to game play. Overall, a decent collection of new options for Old School Essentials, but the Game Master will want to pick and chose what she does want to use.

[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] Gamma Zine #3

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will 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 fantasy.

Gamma Zine carries the subtitle, ‘A Fanzine supporting early post-apocalyptic, science-fantasy RPGs – specifically First Edition Gamma World by TSR.’ This then, is a fanzine dedicated to the very first post-apocalyptic roleplaying game, Gamma World, First Edition, published by TSR, Inc. in 1978. Gamma Zine #1 was published in April, 2019, following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of Zine Quest 1, whilst Gamma Zine #2 was published in February, 2020, following its own successful Kickstarter campaign as part of ZineQuest #2. Published by ThrowiGames!, it came as a black and white booklet, packed with content, including adventures, equipment, monsters, and more. Published as part of ZineQuest #3, Gamma Zine #3 was published in February, 2021 and promised more of the same—adventures, equipment, monsters, fiction, and so on.

Like the previous two issues, Gamma Zine #3 begins with an interview. In Gamma Zine #1, the interview was with the late James M. Ward, the designer of both Gamma World and its predecessor, Metamorphosis Alpha, whereas the interview in Gamma Zine #2 was with Luke Gygax. This was not just because his father is E. Gary Gygax, but also because he is listed as the co-author of GW1 Legion of Gold, the very first scenario for Gamma World. The interview in Gamma Zine #3 is with Bill Barsh, the owner of Pacesetter Games & Simulations. In the interview, he discusses publishing content for the Old School Renaissance, but the main subject was the then forthcoming Gamma X—Gamma World 8thEdition, a retroclone based on the first and second editions of Gamma World, but using the mechanics of the ‘B/X’ version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. The interview is interesting when discussing what was planned at the time, but since then, sadly, the only title to appear is the playtest adventure, GX0.5 Warrendome.

Otherwise, there is a good mix of content with the issue. This starts with the three monsters in ‘Horrors of the Wasteland’. They include the ‘Bicat’, more akin to a Tyrannosaurus Rex than a cat, bipedal with its arms ending taloned fingers and a preference for attacking the weakest targets; the ‘Chemslime’, a sentient pool of slime combining organic matter, chemical spills, and radiation, and capable of assuming partial humanoid form; and the ‘Lizscorpion’, its back half Komodo Dragon with a stinger tail, its front half scorpion all with pincers and mandibles. These are all nasty creatures, some of them quite big threats. Pleasingly, these are not just monster entries, but they actually appear in the issue’s three scenarios.

Gamma World, First Edition and other early post-apocalyptic roleplaying games did not do Classes in the sense of Dungeons & Dragons. Gamma Zine offers them as an option. In Gamma Zine #1, it was the Artificer and in Gamma Zine #2, it was the Wasteland Blacksmith, but here it is the Wasteland Ghoul, a mutated humanoid which survives and thrives in areas of radiation and other poisons and chemicals. This has come at a cost though, as the radiation and chemicals have destroyed parts their brain and one or more internal organs. In game terms they are impervious to radiation or poison of Intensity 17 or lower and take minimum damage from higher Intensities. Even though a mutant, the Wasteland Ghoul cannot have any mental mutations and is limited in choice, such as ‘Physical Reflection (radiation)’, ‘Radiated Eyes’, and ‘Radioactive Healing’. They have limited Intelligence, but are hardier and stronger. Their primarily role is as a scout for entering high intensity radiation areas that the other Player Characters cannot. The Class feels heavily influenced by the Fallout series of computer games, but that is no bad thing. Like the creatures of ‘Horrors of the Wasteland’, the Class also appears in one the issue’s scenarios.

Similarly, the three weapons of ‘Artifacts of the Ancients’ all appear in the scenarios. Written by Jarred Wray Wallace, they include the Vibro Sword, the Sonic Pistol, and the Stasis Ray Rifle, all nice classic additions to the genre. The issue also continues the fiction begun in the first issue with another two chapters of ‘The Hunted’. ‘The Hunted, Chapter Three’ picks up where the story left off, with Whyla and her faithful cybernetic hound, Arnold, having defeated the bandits who ambushed them, but with Arnold damaged and deactivated. The two chapters track her attempt to get Arnold to a cybernetic doctor. Unfortunately, her efforts do not go as well as she hopes and she finds herself in more danger and separated from her faithful companion. Again, it ends on a cliffhanger, hopefully to be resolved in Gamma Zine #4. Nevertheless, the story is engaging and it nicely depicts the dangerous world of its future.

As with previous issues, Gamma Zine #3 comes with three adventures. The first adventure is ‘The Chemaxis Refinery’ and is designed for starting Player Characters. This details a chemical manufacturing facility which the Player Characters have heard is a ready source of biochemical weaponry and energy cells. They will also have heard about the numerous failed attempts to get into the facility due to the high radiation. What is odd is that the radiation does not extend beyond the fence surrounding the compound. When they do manage to sneak in, the Player Characters discover that it is being operated by a band of Wasteland Ghouls who are siphoning off the contents of the tanks of chemical waste to create the bioweaponry and more. The description of the facility is nicely detailed and there is quite lot going on in terms of the Wasteland Ghouls trying to access and use the chemicals and toxins stored there, but they do come off as a faceless workers to be killed rather than interacted with. There is plenty of loot to be found in the facility and it would make a good potential base for the Player Characters, if cleaned up.

The second adventure, ‘The Petrified Fortress’, is intended for Player Characters with slightly more experience. When travelling in a petrified forest, the Player Characters come across one that towers far above the others. It turns out that this tree was converted into a secret military base and once they have found their way inside, the Player Characters get caught up in a war inside between machine and nature. The robot units are under siege by sentient plants spreading from the facility’s biodome. The robots will not attack the Player Characters and the suggestion in the scenario is that the Player Characters come to their aid and again, that this is potentially a good base for them.

‘Palace of the Bandit King’ is the third adventure and is suited for experienced and well-equipped Player Characters. This has more of a plot right from the start with the Player Characters hired by several settlements who are sick of the predations of a local bandit king and have scraped together enough funds to pay them. Bandit King Prentas Smythe’s palace is sealed in a desert ravine where he and his bandit horde host pit-fighting tournaments! It has only the one known entrance, so either the Player Characters are going to try to find another one or they are going in the front, the suggestion being that they disguise themselves as merchants or would be pit fighters. The bandits’ reputation for being evil is well founded and their base is effectively a slaughterhouse. Their base is very reminiscent of Jabba the Hutt’s palace in Return of the Jedi and as with the previous two adventures, would make for a very good base for the Player Characters. It is also the most straightforward of the adventures in the fanzine and the most familiar in terms of its plot. After all, bandits, pit fighting, and cannibalism in a post-apocalyptic setting? That certainly has a ring of familiarity to it. The inclusion of the plot means that it is the best of the three with ‘The Chemaxis Refinery’ being more of a techno-dungeon than a scenario.

Physically, Gamma Zine #3 is neat and tidy. It is decently written and nicely illustrated with good art throughout. Each of the scenarios is accompanied by excellent maps.

There is much here that the Game Master can use in her campaign, whether that is for Gamma World or another post-apocalyptic roleplaying game. The content is easily adapted, but better suited for post-apocalyptic roleplaying games with a drier, slightly less fantastic tone, such as Free League Publishing’s Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. With three adventures, all nicely detailed, though varying in terms of how much plot they have, Gamma Zine #3 provides a good amount of playable content.

[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] LOWBORN Issue I

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will 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, but not all fanzines draw from the Old School Renaissance. Some provide support for much more modern games.

Lowborn is ‘An Independent Grim Perilous Fanzine for Zweihänder RPG’. As the subtitle suggests, this is a fanzine for the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, published in 2017 and thus modern, but actually a retroclone of another roleplaying game. That roleplaying game is the definitive British roleplaying game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, published by Games Workshop in 1986.

Lowborn Issue I was published in April, 2020. The content begins with a handful of small articles. They include ‘New Doomings’ by Adrian Kennelly. These are ways in which a Player Character might die in Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG. There are four tables here, one for each season, and they offer alternatives to those list in the core rulebook. ‘Those Two Orx’ is the regular cartoon rather than cartoon strip, but at a whole page, it is taking up space that could have been put to better use, especially given the desperation of the humour. Ingacio M.’s ‘Reaction Spells’ provides a handful of spells that are variants of several Generalist Spells. For an Action Point, they can be cast as a reaction and require a spellcaster to know the original spell and then expend Experience Points to learn these ones. They include Cack-Handed Grasp, triggered when someone moves towards the caster and makes the floor in front of the caster slippery enough that the person approaching the caster might fall over and Magick Missile, triggered when someone runs away, which stuns that person, though it does not work in darkness. This is a solid section of spells, all nicely detailed, which can easily be added to a campaign.

Ingacio M. is also the author of ‘100 One Attribute NPCs’. This is not a second set of tables, but rather one table providing the very minimum of details of one hundred NPCs, including

name, archetype, attribute (value), ancestry, age group, complexion, build, and social class, and divided equally between male and female. The Game Master only has to roll once to have an NPC with a few details ready to roleplay without her having to decide a bunch of details on the spot. Or, of course, the Game Master choose one or even roll for each category to add further flexibility—if she has time. Overall, useful.

‘One Roll Combat’ by Petter Rudin-Burgess offers two things. One is an analysis of three different types of combat in roleplaying games and the other is an alternative to the complexity of combat in Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG. In turn, the author looks at Dungeons & Dragons with its use of Hit Points as a measure of combat skill rather than fortitude or endurance, the simulationist nature of combat in Rolemaster, and the slightly more abstracted nature of combat in Zweihänder. What it highlights at the end of this is the length of time that these differing means of handling combat can take. What the author suggests as an alternative in shorter or smaller combat scenes where the action does not need to play out blow by blow, is to have the player describe what he wants his character to do, the Game Master assess and set the difficulty, and then the player roll, adjusting the result with Fate and Fortune points as necessary. The outcome of the roll determines the narrative. Perhaps a little overwritten, this is nevertheless, a useful suggestion that is worth a Zweihänder Game Master taking the time to look at.

‘The Bailiff of the Problem’ is the first of two scenarios in Lowborn Issue I. Written by Sean Van Damme, it is a short murder mystery that can be prepared and played in a single session. Although it is suggested that the Game Master use the Villagers & Villains – 40 NPCs From Humble to Heroic, it is not absolutely necessary. All that is necessary, is that the Player Characters be in their Basic professions. It starts with the Player Characters having been hired by a magistrate to locate a tax collector who has gone missing whilst collecting taxes from the tiny community of Labarn. On the road to the village, they discover the tax collector’s body which has suffered some odd injuries. The scenario really consists of an investigation in Labarn, centred on interviews with several of the inhabitants. Like a classic murder mystery, they all had reason to hate the dead man. There may be a little combat involved, but this is mainly an interactive and roleplaying scenario. It is quite detailed despite its brevity and so should not be too taxing for the players and their characters to solve. It is also left up to them to decide how they resolve the situation. This is short and sweet, its brevity making it easy to add to a campaign.

‘Carnival’ by Ignacio M. is intentionally and magically odd. Descriptions of carnivals or circuses, typically the façade for a dark cult are a common trope in roleplaying games inspired by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay such as Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, but this is different. It is enveloped by magic even to the extent that the wagons and tents are arranged like a magical circle. What that magic hides and embraces is that the operators are all anthropomorphic animals. So, they are different and they are also not members of a dark cult. Many of the wagons and tents are, in their own way, expansive. One offers a library of thousands and thousands of books, and more—if one knows the right incantation to open up the stacks, whilst the House of Mirrors contains a labyrinth of mirrors that in turn can teleport the viewer to a desired location or give a view of a particular person and enable the viewer to cross over to them spiritually for a short time. Only three of the tents or wagons are described, so there is scope for expansion here and also, there are no stats for any of the NPCs. If there is an issue for the article, it is the inclusion of the anthropomorphic NPCs and whether that fits a Game Master’s campaign. She, of course, has the right to change such details and the various NPCs could be hiding something else instead. Bar some scenario ideas or hooks, ‘Carnival’ offers an intriguing and different type of circus, one with plenty of room for expansion and development.

The second scenario in Lowborn Issue I is Peter Rudin-Burgess’ ‘The Bloody Jack’. It takes place in the village of Gürdenstein where the inhabitants have become wary of strangers. This is not for usual reasons found in roleplaying games, but rather because they are being taken advantage. Recently, Erik Hecher arrived in the village with nothing more than a few coins in his pocket and the rough clothes on his back, but in the few weeks since, he has greatly improved himself—new tailored clothes, a haircut, and so on. He has taken up residence and similarly improved the house he has moved into. The monies for this have come from his successful gambling. There is something odd going on and it will not take much for the Player Characters to discover that Erik is in league with a demon! Upon this revelation, the villagers, incensed at their gambling losses, take their revenge on him in an act of mob violence. Unfortunately, this unleashes a curse, one that the Player Characters are in the best place to help lift. This involves a journey to a nearby monastery and the Player Characters will be plagued by demons who still want their revenge for Erik’s death. Puttng aside the question of quite where the villagers got the money that Erik was fleecing from them, the Game Master will need to provide stats and perhaps it would have been good if the Player Characters were given more of a chance to interact with Erik Hecher to learn his story. Otherwise, this is a decently dark and nasty scenario, very in keeping with the ‘Grim & Perilous’ tone the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG.

Physically, Lowborn Issue I is a bit untidy and rough around the edges, plus it needs a slight edit. That said, it is a first issue, so there are bound to be teething problems.

Lowborn Issue I is an impressive first issue. It has decent content, which includes two, very playable adventures. And the truth is, both of those scenario would work just as well with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition (or whatever ‘Grim & Perilous’ roleplaying game the Game Master is running) and not just Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG.

[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] Black Pudding #8

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

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

Black Pudding is a fanzine that is nominally written for use with Labyrinth Lord and as of Black Pudding No. 6, for use with Old School Essentials as well, so is compatible with other Retroclones, but it is not a traditional Dungeons & Dragons-style fanzine. For starters, it is all but drawn rather than written, with artwork that reflects a look that is cartoonish, a tone that is slightly tongue in cheek, and a gonzo feel. Its genre is avowedly Swords & Sorcery, as much Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser as Conan the Barbarian. Drawn from the author’s ‘Doomslakers!’ house rules and published by Random Order via Square Hex, Black Pudding’s fantasy roleplaying content that is anything other than the straight-laced fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons, but something a bit lighter and not a little tongue in cheek, yet still full of adventure and heroism. Issues one, two, and three showcased the author’s ‘Doomslakers!’ house rules with a mix of new character Classes, spells, magic items, monsters, NPCs, and adventures, whilst four also included the author’s ‘OSR Play book’, his reference for running an Old School Renaissance game, essentially showing how he runs his own campaign. Issue five included a similar mix of new Classes, NPCs, and an adventure, but did begin to suggest a campaign setting, which six also continued as well as containing its owning wilderness area for the Player Characters to explore.

Black Pudding #8 continues in the same vein as Black Pudding No. 5, Black Pudding No. 6, and Black Pudding #7, containing a mix of new Character Classes, new monsters, NPCs, and mini-scenarios, although no further details or descriptions of Yria, part of the ‘Doomslakers’ campaign are given. The tongue-in-cheek tone of the fanzine begins inside the front cover with the Wizard spell, Foot in Face, which the wizard can prepare a round in advance and then cast instantly as a rejoinder, stunning the defender for a round, whilst on the facing page, ‘The Barbarian Blade’ which parodies Conan and eschews the use of magical swords which makes the men of the south weak. The wielder of this two-handed blade must do so with strength and without fear, but can strike any foe and inflicts 2d8 damage! It is over the top, but in keeping with the genre.

The new monsters are twists on standard types. Thus, the ‘Fee Foe’ is a giant that enjoys the blood of adventurers, lairs on roads and under bridges where it charges a toll. It is also good at throwing rocks and can block passages as if Hold Portal was cast. Hopefully, the players will get the pun in the name. The ‘Troglozyte’ is a version of the Troglodyte, but bigger and nastier with a fast regeneration ability and the possibility that when bitten by a Troglozyte, an adventurer might be transformed into one! The ‘Reeking Rotter’ is an undead thing whose attacks inflict ‘Rot Spatter’ which causes sufferers to retch temporarily and whose bite infests victims with rot worms that reduce their Constitution. The rot worms not only stink, but emit tiny screams! Lastly, the ‘Octonods’ are creepy scientists from another dimension that come looking for wizards’ spells and scrolls that they turn into a noxious gas to incubate their young! They are utterly lacking in joy and can sting with their tentacles, or their gaze attack can inflict damage, cast Charm Person/Monster, cast Telekinesis, or simply teleport a target away. They have the feel of big threat, perhaps an ongoing one.

The first of the issue’s several new Classes is the ‘Alien’. Its strangeness means it suffers a bonus to Reaction rolls, whilst its Weird Food requirements cost more, and Weird Brain makes it immune to Sleep, Charm, and Geases. It adds a degree a complexity with ‘Strange Powers’, which enable it to project powers from its head. These powers are all potion-based, so a player will be looking at the treasure section of the rules—whether ‘Basic’ or ‘Expert’—rather than the spell lists. Whilst the ‘Alien’ is less likely to appear in many a campaign, the ‘Death Witch’ is more obviously useful. She cannot be of Good Alignment and is capable of casting both Cleric and Magic-User spells, can speak to the dead and turn undead as a Cleric, and as a ‘Skull Lover’ turns any weapon decorated with a skull into a magical weapon. In addition, she can make and place a Hex Bag on a target to trigger later for more damage. Should a Death Witch die, she will rise again in three days with a loss of Charisma and indebted to evil…

The ‘Fighting Wombat’ Class is a silly addition, a Fighter type, but with the ability to dig tunnels, store items in its back pouch, and when unarmoured, can hide in natural surroundings like a Halfling. The ‘Goon Royal’, by Jayne X Praxis, is a rare contribution to Black Pudding from an author other than James V. West. Apart from a bite attack which continues to inflict damage until the target makes a successful saving throw versus paralysis and the ability to climb like the Thief Class, there is little to make the Class stand out.

The penultimate Class in Black Pudding #8 is the ‘Feral Knight’. This is a fallen warrior, cursed to wander the wilds until he commits deeds of honour that will restore his lost glory. This is a Fighter Class, but with limited access to arms and armour. Initially only a dagger and a shield, but other weapons and armour become available as the Player Character gains Levels, whilst magical arms and armour can be used at Ninth Level. The ‘Feral Knight’ is ‘Heroic’ and has an attack bonus versus Evil enemies, immune to fear, and his ‘Courage’ gives a bonus versus mind-effecting magic. He also gains Knightly powers as he acquires Levels and does great deeds, including being able to know alignments, casting Cure Light Wounds three times per day, and eventually cast First Level Cleric spells daily. There is a table to determine what caused the fall of the ‘Feral Knight’. There is a lot of detail to the Class, but with it plenty of roleplaying potential.

The last Class is the ‘Norg’, a Giant Kin Class. This is another Fighter Class, but one who fights with a penalty with one-handed weapons, finding armour is difficult because the each member of the Class is at least eight feet tall, is immune to cold magic effects, and has the special abilities of the Polar bear, including knowing their language. The ‘Norg’ can also speak to giants, but they will not trust the ‘Norg’. This is a simple and serviceable Class, easy to add to a campaign and roleplay. Of the six Classes in the issue, the ‘Feral Knight’ is the most interesting and the one with most gaming scope built in.

‘Ghiki’s Hole’ is the first of two scenarios in Black Pudding #8. It is an adventure location, a grated hole in the ground in the wilderness, which opens onto a sheer shaft, two hundred feet deep. The caves at the bottom of the shaft are home to the titular Ghiki, a ‘Cyclops Serpent’, curled up on a pile of bones and treasure. The adventure is short and challenging, but has a pleasingly physicality with the deep shaft, some caves in the walls, and webs near bottom, but above the lair. The lair of Ghiki, quite a tough monster, is shown with the creature winding around the treasure adding further to the sense of place. The second scenario is ‘General Skull Falcon’s Hall’ (possibly, but it is not clear), in which the Player Characters ascend a snowy mountain to consult General Skull Falcon who will respect their bravery in climbing the mountain and reward them with several true facts they did not know and one false fact. This location has a hook built in, but is short enough and compact enough to drop into a campaign when that hook, the Player Character’s need for knowledge they cannot get elsewhere comes up as part of a campaign. So, a good addition in that eventuality.

One of the best features in Black Pudding is ‘Meatshields of the Bleeding Ox’, a collection of NPCs ready for hire by the Player Characters. There is a decent range of NPCs given here, such as ‘Elotar Flatulus’, a Third Level Thief with a love of tea and dislike of loud music, who has seen and done it all, but might just be getting a bit long in the tooth, and ‘Nart Flindasterd’, a Fourth Level Thief who likes precious metals, but hates guards and wizards because as a genius toddler, the son of wealthy wizard, he was dropped on his head, and ever since, he not been a genius and it really irks him. There are eight ready-to-use NPCs and each one will add a little in their own way to a Game Master’s campaign.

The big feature in Black Pudding #8 is ‘Zasto Fillstian, War Wizard, Hellrider, Outcast of Seapath’, a major NPC who is a Seventeenth Level Magic-user and Seventh Level Star Wizard (as detailed in Black Pudding #3) who hunger for power and consequent actions drove him out of the city of Seapath and into a secret sanctuary in the Dweomerdrake Mountains from where he raids hidden and dangerous worlds whilst viciously protecting and hoarding what he finds. This includes, but is not limited to, a Sherman tank, adapted to run on wine or beer, given the lack of diesel. His write-up includes descriptions of his favourite treasures; his trusted agents—an alien as per the Class earlier in the book and a cold-hearted Elf; his Book of Eternal Life, which he won from Hell and from which he cast the spell of the same name; and Golgor, the star from which he gains some of his powers. Together with a map of his lair, this is the real big threat in the issue and would be a major presence in any campaign.

‘Iron Devils II’ describes ten magical swords. For example, Hawkhead is a +1 sword that lets the wielder see through the eyes of a passing bird for a turn or Whiplash, a +1 sword whose curved blade negates bonuses for shields or cover, and can be thrown and will come back if the attack misses, whilst the mirror blade reflects invisible things and lets the user see through a door or over a wall once a day. All ten blades are illustrated and nicely detailed, each one adding a little different flavour.

Physically, Black Pudding #8 adheres to the same standards set by the previous issues. So plenty of good, if cartoonish artwork to give it a singular, consistent look, accompanied by similar cartography. As with previous issues of the fanzine, the potential and obvious problem with Black Pudding #8 is that its tone may not be compatible with the style of Dungeons & Dragons that a Labyrinth Lord or Game Master is running. The tone of Black Pudding is lighter, weirder, and in places just sillier than the baseline Dungeons & Dragons game, so the Game Master should take this into account when using the content of the fanzine.

A new issue of Black Pudding is always welcome, offering as it does a lighter, sometimes sillier approach to Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy. This gives the fanzine a genuinely unique identity and Black Pudding #8 is no different, offering a mix of content that veers from the instantly useable to the so weird that the Game Master is going to find it harder to add to her campaign. Yet there was the hope that the next issue of the fanzine would further develop the author’s ‘Doomslakers!’ house rules as well his setting of Yria, but Black Pudding #8 does not do that and it is disappointing. Make no mistake, there is good content in Black Pudding #8 and it is a finely produced fanzine, but there is scope to do more than do the same mix again.