[Free RPG Day 2026] From Here to There

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, it did not take place outside of the USA due to US customs issues, which means that none of the physical content has shipped to the UK. It is hoped that with the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh will able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day for future reviews.

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From Here to There: A Free RPG Day OSR Hexcrawl is a simple, straightforward hexcrawl. It is setting agnostic and can be dropped easily into a Game Master’s campaign, ideally somewhere in between locations that the Player Characters might want to travel to, hence the title. It is published by Third Kingdom Games, best known for its ongoing Populated Hexes series collected in Populated Hexes Monthly Year One, Populated Hexes Monthly Year Two, Populated Hexes Monthly Year Three, and Populated Hexes Monthly Year Four. What this means is that the publisher has form when it comes to creating hexcrawls. The scenario is written for Player Characters of First to Fourth Level and for use with two different rules systems. One is Old School Essentials from Necrotic Gnome, whilst the other is Bree-YARC, retroclone inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, but still based on the ‘B/X’ version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. What this means is that mechanically, From Here to There, will work with a lot of other retroclones, whilst in terms of its story and setting, it is easily adapted to other fantasy roleplaying games and would work just as well. This is because the fantasy of the setting is itself low key. The Player Characters are going to be facing bears, brigands, deer, Orcs, skeletons, zombies, and so on. The only creature that is particular to Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy is the Stirge and that is easily replaced.

From Here to There is set in a heavily forested valley, some thirty-to-thirty-six miles wide and about fifty miles in length. Roughly every twenty miles along the rough track that runs along its length is a camp site where the occasional merchant caravans of mule-trains usually stop. There are rumours of a ancient magical fountain that can restore the dead to life to be found in the valley, barrows the final resting places of ancient kings are believed to dot the sides of the valley, rumours of an Orc tribe preying on anyone who leaves the road, and mumblings of brigands attacking the merchant caravans. The Game Master can simply drop the valley into her campaign setting and just have it as a route from ‘a’ to ‘b’, but there are several ways in which it can be used. The Player Characters might follow up on rumours to search for treasure in the valley or have a map suggesting that there is treasure in the region; the Player Characters might be hired to protect a merchant caravan; or they might be hired to discover who is ambushing the merchant-caravans. Or even a mix of the three.

Across the valley, there are twenty-one sites of potential interest to the Player Characters. Their descriptions are marked as either ‘Landmarks’, ‘Hidden’, or ‘Secrets’. ‘Landmarks’ are found without needing to search for them; hidden features need to be searched for, but this takes rather than requiring a die roll; and secret features can only be found if they are searched for and a die roll is made. Exploring the valley is built around the rumour table and the encounter table as the Player Characters wander from one hex to the next. Some locations have a set encounter, such as a solitary grizzly bear who will only bother the Player Characters to decide to camp out in his hex or an area where a rare herb grows, but others contain more random encounters. The more obvious such encounters include the camp sites where there is a chance of a caravan having made a stop, but others include the possibility of an abandoned bear trap being triggered, disturbing a nest of yellowjackets and getting stung, and so on. Others though, serve the general plot of From Here to There, in particular, pointing to the activities of the brigands. For example, the Player Characters encounter a caravan that is later the victim of the brigands’ predations. It is also in  encounters such as these that are the most opportunities for roleplaying. Lastly, there are two locations that are more detailed with individual maps and will make more time to play through, one of which is the brigands’ base of operations.

Both of the set locations use cartography by Dyson Logos, so are very good. The scenario has two other maps though, both of the valley. One is a simple hex-grid map using mapping symbol, so can be used as a map for the Player Characters. The other map is pictorial and actually pleasingly attractive. It is a pity that the players are unlikely to get to see it, because it is for the Game Master’s eyes only (though if adapted to a VTT, the Game Master could reveal the map hex by hex).

Physically, From Here to There is decently done. The maps are good and the artwork, though not extensive, does a reasonable job. One notable factor which sticks out is that the stat blocks for both monsters and NPCs are combined for both Old School Essentials and Bree-YARC. The stats for the latter are done in red, so do stick out a bit, at least initially. The Game Master will get used to it.

As written, it is fair to say that From Here to There: A Free RPG Day OSR Hexcrawl is perhaps a bit bland. However, that affords the Game Master flexibility in terms of how it is used. It can be used as an area to explore or as area to be travelled through again and again, with perhaps the Player Characters learning new rumours each time and uncovering more of its secrets as they travel back and forth. The Game Master will probably want to add some detail and flavour to the NPCs that the Player Characters might run into, as not all of them are detailed as they might be. The scenario is low-key enough that the Game Master has scope to adapt the setting to her own campaign, changing names and encounter types as necessary. Overall, however it is used, From Here to There: A Free RPG Day OSR Hexcrawl is an enjoyably low-key, low fantasy scenario.

Friday Fantasy: Milk

As the Christmas holidays approach, there comes bad news. First, the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land—have sold out everywhere. Second, when they do come back into stock, they are not sold reputable outlets and vendors, and although they all of the correct branding, they are far inferior to the truffle chocolates that everyone knows and loves. What has happened to the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land? Is the maker ill? Has his supply of milk gone sour? The makers are, in fact, a tribe of Merfolk, who live in a lake of pure milk under a mountain, and it is this milk that ensures the creamy quality of the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land, made together with the Dwarf servants to the King and Queen of the Merfolk under the mountain. And surely this calamity cannot be allowed to continue? Someone should be sent to check on the King and Queen, their tribe of the Merfolk, their Dwarf servants, and the production of the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land. Perhaps a chocolate connoisseur might employ such a useful party? Or a tribe of Merfolk want news of their fellow tribe that live under the mountain? Or perhaps a rival group of chocolate makers want the secret to the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land? Any or all of these could be used as hooks for Quick Delve #1: Milk.

Quick Delve #1: Milk is an adventure for OldSchool Essentials from Necrotic Gnome and is designed to be played with Player Characters of Second Level. The scenario is the first in the publisher’s ‘Quick Delve’ series. Each is designed for one or two sessions’ worth of play and is intended to be perfect for side quests, one-shots, and conventions, as well as easily into any campaign. The scenario starts outside the mountain factory in front of double doors on which has been scrawled, “All Hail the Chocolatier, Goddess of Chocolate!”. Which does not bode well for what ever is inside. Fortunately, the Chocolate Golems with their chocolate drop-shaped heads with glowing orange candy-coated eyes and smelling of rich dark, chocolate, will readily let the Player Characters in, and the cagey, if rather jolly and waggish Skeletons in their purple monastic robes would prefer to have a song and dance than fight. However, the deeper the Player Characters penetrate into the chocolate factory, the more the Chocolate Golems and Skeletons turn against the Player Characters. As the fights from encounter to the next escalate, the Player Characters quickly discover many things awry in the chocolate faction. One is that the chocolate can have magical effects, for both the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land—and the chocolate that seems to being made in the chocolate factory now. The latter is like to have more negative effects than eating the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land, though they can be additive. There is a pool of rancid milk. A distraught King of the Merfolk. And then there is the glum workforce. The Dwarves. Who are described as having “Orange skin, green hair, and white eyebrows.” In other words, they are not Dwarves, but Oompa-Loompas. The workforce in the factory in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. And yes, Milk in inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Which all makes sense with its chocolate theme. Milk then, is a seasonal dungeon or adventure, one that the Game Master might run as a seasonal break from the rest of the campaign at Christmas. There is no Christmas theme to the scenario, but there is a tweeness and a sweetness. The problem is, there is not much else.

If you were to remove the sweetness and the tweeness from Milk, you would be left with a bland dungeon with no plot beyond ‘less skilled manufacturer takes over factory of much more skilled rival, imprisons their family, and puts out inferior product; Player Characters have to clean it up.’ Which would be fine if the NPCs had a character or personality, and if there is no personality, there is no roleplaying. Unfortunately, in Milk none of the NPCs have any personality, least of all the villain of the piece, ‘The Chocolatier’. She should at least get a cackle, if not a parcel of chocolate-themed puns, but nothing. A villain should be memorable. This one is not, at least not as written. The scenario leaves it up to the Game Master to decide the personalities and attitudes of the NPCs, so giving her yet more work to do.

Yet, Quick Delve #1: Milk is competently written in a mechanical sense. There is some play with the chocolate theme, especially in the random effects of eating the chocolates and the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land, the scalding hot chocolate-spitting chocolate worm in its molten chocolate pool, and the Chocolate Sceptre of Control—solid chocolate, encrusted with candied cherries—which can cast Charm Person. But there are no chocolate-themed spells or other magical items.

Then there is inspiration, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Roald Dahl’s writing was not sweet in its tone, it was sour too, veering into the grotesque and the comic. There is none of that in Milk. Just the sweetness. As something inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the scenario only takes partial inspiration from it and is all the worse as a result. As a pastiche of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory it is barely half a pastiche.

Physically, Quick Delve #1: Milk is serviceably presented. The layout is clean and tidy, the map easy to read, the artwork reasonable, and if perhaps tending towards the succinct, the scenario is easy to run.

There is a market for seasonal adventures, whether set at Christmas or other times of the year, but Quick Delve #1: Milk is unsuitable for all of them. Whilst as a ‘Quick Delve’ scenario, it can be run in a session or two, but as a side quest or a convention scenario, why would you? The tone is unlikely to match any other scenario or setting and as a convention scenario, it does not showcase Old School Essentials in a very good light. The design is perfunctory at best, the tone is one note, and the villain viciously underwritten. Quick Delve #1: Milk is easily the worst scenario that Necrotic Gnome has ever published. Not because it it is bad, but because it is boring.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] Guide to Grunts

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

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

Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers is a systemless sourcebook designed for fantasy games in general, rather than a specific roleplaying game. Which means that it will work with many Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games. Released following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is designed and published by Gonzo History Project, better known as James Holloway, the host of the Monster Man podcast, who also published The Magonium Mine Murders.

Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers is a companion volume to the highly regarded Pamphlet of Pantheons: Guide to Creating Fantasy Myths and Religions. Where the latter helped the Game Master create pantheons, gods and deities, and religions, this supplement helps the Game Master create units and soldiers for fantasy armies. There are plenty of supplements that do this for fantasy roleplaying, often helping the Game Master create military units modelled using the same stats and details as a Player Character in Dungeons & Dragons, and then, providing rules to have them clash on the field of battle. Guide to Grunts is different and does not that do that.

Instead, Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers focuses upon the ways and wherefores of a military unit. Who and what the unit members are made up of, why they fight, how they are paid, what is the unit’s obligation, whether they are conscripts, and so on. It defines the nature of the officers that lead the unit and what the unit is like, how it is equipped, and how it is led. It then asks what daily rations the unit is given and what its members consider to be a special treat, how they get paid, and what happens when they get hurt. If the unit has camp followers, the Game Master can define them, and if currently stationed somewhere, what its camp or fort is like. The first thirteen tables together give the Game Master prompts that when answered, help her create interesting military units, but without any stats. The process consists of rolling a few dice and asking how each element fits together to make narrative sense. The author admits that the inspiration for the entries is the European Middle Ages, but they are flexible enough to apply to other settings inspired by other periods of history or fantasy settings. What the tables do not cover is magic or the more fantastical elements of a setting. That is left up to the Game Master decide on her own, since every world is different.

What is interesting here is not just the nature of a military unit, but the fact that it exists in a world and is a creation of that world. As the author points out, “…[M]iltaries are social and political institutions.” So, who and what the unit is, what it is asked to do, and more can do something unexpected and that is ask questions and suggest ideas about the world and background to the unit. Of course, the Game Master is probably going to be adding a unit to an existing world, rather than creating a unit and building out to create a whole world, but that still leaves questions that in answering, the Game Master can make her setting more interesting and more coherent.

What is interesting here is not just the nature of a military unit, but the fact that it exists in a world and is a creation of that world. As the author points out, “…[M]iltaries are social and political institutions.” So, who and what the unit is, what it is asked to do, and more can do something unexpected and that is ask questions and suggest ideas about the world and background to the unit. Of course, the Game Master is probably going to be adding a unit to an existing world, rather than creating a unit and building out to create a whole world, but that still leaves questions that in answering, the Game Master can make her setting more interesting.

To help bring the unit to life, the fanzine has tables for random encounters and patrols so that the Player Characters can run into the unit during play. This is not the only way in which the Player Characters can run into a military unit. It can be part of a Player Character’s background and so there is a table for his military experience, who his old comrades were, what souvenir he has of his time in service, and what sort of soldier he was. Tie this into a specific unit created using the previous tables and the Player Character has even more background.

This supported by fully worked examples showing how seemingly disparate results from the tables can be worked together to create a coherent unit and suggest some story hooks. Some of them have NPC descriptions too. And again, the examples can be used as is or as inspiration for the Game Master. Plus, there is advice from start to finish on how to use the tables and interpret the results. As the author points out, the tables are much looser and less structured than in the previous Pamphlet of Pantheons: Guide to Creating Fantasy Myths and Religions, and the results thus more open to interpretation and harder to work with. The point though, is to create military units with backgrounds and cultures that whilst not necessarily weird or odd, are anything other than clichés and add to the world even before the Game Master applies numbers.

Physically, Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers is clean and tidy. It is lightly illustrated with lightly cartoonish artwork which suits the tone of the fanzine.

Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers is not quite as useful as Pamphlet of Pantheons: Guide to Creating Fantasy Myths and Religions and it is not as easy to use. It requires more input from the Game Master who has to be more inventive because more specifics have to be created. Yet just like the previous fanzine, with a few rolls of the dice, the Game Master can use Guide to Grunts: Inspiration for Creating Fantasy Armies and Soldiers to develop her campaign world and help bring to life.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] Carcass Crawler Issue #5

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

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

Carcass Crawler is ‘The Official Fanzine Old-School Essentials zine’. Published by Necrotic Gnome, Old School Essentials is the retroclone based upon the version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay and published in 1981, and Carcass Crawler provides content and options for it. It is pleasingly ‘old school’ in its sensibilities, being a medley of things in its content rather than just the one thing or the one roleplaying game as has been the trend in gaming fanzines, especially with ZineQuest. To date Carcass Crawler #0, Carcass Crawler #1, Carcass Crawler Issue #2, Carcass Crawler Issue #3, and Carcass Crawler Issue #4 have all focused on providing new Classes and Races, both in ‘Race as Class’ and ‘Race and Class’ formats as well as general support for Old School Essentials.

Carcass Crawler Issue #5 follows a similar path, but provides more general, but still character-focused content. The issue includes two ‘New Character Classes’ by Brad Kerr and Gavin Norman, one new, one not so new. The new one is the ‘Ratling’. This is an anthropomorphic rat which is difficult to surprise given its strong sense of smell, has Infravision and a prehensile tale, an affinity with other rats and knows the secret language of rats. Its skills include Climb Sheer Surfaces, Detect Poison, Hear Noise, Hide in Shadows, and Move Silently. The Class is categorised as semi-martial, being similar, but not like a Thief. The second of the Classes is not new, but old, having originally appeared in Carcass Crawler #0. The Changeling Class offers the chance for a player to roleplay a Doppelgänger! The Changeling’s ‘Beguile’ skill enables the Class to speak highly persuasively in an almost Charm-like effect, at least temporarily, and with ‘Shape-Stealing’ can mimic the forms of others, unconscious or slain, an effect lasting for one Turn per Level. The counterpart to the ‘New Character Classes’ are the ‘New Character Races’ by the same authors. It should be no surprise that the Changeling has the most potential as an Assassin as well as an Illusionist or Thief, whilst the Ratling can also be an Assassin, but will also be a good Acrobat or Thief.

‘Cantrips’ by Gavin Norman does exactly what it suggests and introduces minor, Zero Level spells for Old School Essentials. They still need to be memorised, but include cantrips such as Magic Quill, Open/Close Portal, Sense Magic, and Spark. There is an optional rule and cantrip for Read Magic, making scrolls easier to read without having to give up a more powerful spell slot. The cantrips have a very Middle-earth feel, including Rune (caster traces a sigil in the air or on a surface) and Smoke Rings for the pipe-smoking Wizard!

If ‘Cantrips’ looks back to Unearthed Arcana for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, then ‘Level 0 Characters’ by Brad Kerr and Gavin Norman is nod to N4 Treasure Hunt and N5 Under Illefarn, if not the ‘Character Funnel’ beloved of Dungeon Crawl Classics from Goodman Games. Such Player Characters start with fixed Saving Throws and low Hit Points. By default, they are Humans, but an optional rule allows for Demi-Humans with their inherent abilities. There is a guide to playing ‘funnel style’ adventures which clearly acknowledges the article’s primary inspiration, Dungeon Crawl Classics. A Zero Level Player Character also has a Background, the type depending upon his starting Hit Points. A Zero Level Player Character with more Hit Points tends to be physical and have a job that requires more strength, whilst a Zero Level Player Character with less has more sedentary Background. In addition to be used for Character Funnels, these rules and tables can be used to generate Zero Level NPCs and potential hirelings and be used to create a Background for a normal, First Level Player Character prior to the start of play.

Gavin Norman’s ‘Special Materials’ looks at both weaker and enhanced materials. For the former it lists the properties of weapons and armour made of bone, bronze, stone, and similar materials, and the perils and penalties of using broken or bent weapons, as well as cost of repairs. This opens up Old School Essentials to the possibility of cultures who lack metalworking knowledge, whether at all or enough to mark the iron and steel weapons that are the baseline arms and armour. For the latter, it does the same but for weapons and armour made of adamantine, mithril, and silver. In general, the bonuses provided are not as good as magical weapons, plus they are very expensive. This is followed ‘Expanded Poisons’, also by Norman. It expands upon the nine categories of poison given in Old School Essentials by naming them and detailing their effects. It gives cost, saving throw modification, chance of detection, onset time, and effect for each one along with a description. This adds some nasty flavour, especially if the campaign involves assassins.

In ‘Magic Swords’ by Brad Kerr with Chance Dudinack, the Game Master can create all manner of magical swords with quirky abilities. For example, a wavy wooden sword with an antlered pommel with the ‘Flavour’ quirk which when used to stir food can change its flavour or a blood-grooved blade of demon horn with a twitching eye in the pommel and the quirk of ‘Gloating’, meaning that it laughs evilly in combat, reducing enemy morale! Some entertaining quirks here, enabling the Game Master to create some memorable blades—the quirks could easily be applied to other weapons as appropriate—that will enhance (or ruin) the reputations of both the Player Characters and NPCs that wield them.

Chance Dudinack’s ‘Lake & River Monsters’ details eight new monsters found in freshwater lakes, ponds, and rivers. They include the Giant Beaver, the Freshwater Hag, Grindylow (aquatic prank-playing, but cowardly gremlins), Weretoads, Mudslingers (amphibious fish that hunt by spitting mud), Shellycoat (aquatic humanoids that feed on the corpses of the drowned), Snallygaster (reptilian birds with lamprey mouths full of tentacles that suck the blood of the living), and River Trolls. They are all decently done and are accompanied by decent illustrations, In addition, they appear in the adventure that follows.

‘Up Chaos River’ by Brad Kerr and Chance Dudinack is a two-part funnel adventure designed to be played using twelve to fifteen Zero Level Player Characters. The first part ‘The River’. By Brad Kerr, it is a rivercrawl that begins in the town of Blackwater that recently held its midsummer festival, but which since has fallen under a curse as ooze from the river mutates its inhabitants, including its warriors and wizards. With no-one else to investigate, it is up to a band of townsfolk—brave or foolish enough—to paddle or punt upriver to discover the source and put a stop to the problem. There are some nasty encounters along the way, such as a blade poking up out of the water that draws boats to it to slice them in half or a man yelling for help, stranded on a toad infested island, who if rescued, turns out to be a Weretoad(!), but there are good opportunities too, such as rescuing a mermaid. There is a great variety of encounters here, so it a pity that the players and their characters will not experience them all. There are rules given for river travel and worse, for the effects of the river ooze, should a Player Character touch it.

The second part is ‘Hag’s Lair’ by Chance Dudinack. This details the lair of the creature responsible, constructed by her giant beaver minions. It is thick with mud and chewed wood and festooned with traps. It is a mucky, murky adventure that will ultimately lead to a confrontation with the villain of the piece. She is a fiercesome opponent armed with her own magical wooden spoon. However, one disappointment is that combat is the only option considered for dealing with her. It would have been good if the adventure had included options for negotiating or reasoning with her.

‘Up Chaos River’ is an entertaining adventure, though ‘The River’ is the better of the two parts, having a eerie, weird feel. It will be challenging for the Zero Level Player Characters—let alone First Level Player Characters—and any who survive will be truly seasoned. It makes good use of the monsters in ‘Lake & River Monsters’.

Physically, Carcass Crawler Issue #5 is well written and well presented. The artwork is excellent and the cartography good.

Carcass Crawler Issue #5 is an excellent issue of the fanzine. There is a nice balance between new Character options and content supporting campaigns and scenarios. All capped by a good scenario that will challenge the most experienced of players and provide two or three good sessions’ worth of play. Carcass Crawler Issue #5 is good not just for Old School Essentials, but just about any retroclone.

Friday Fantasy: They’re Making Hostage Sausage at the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant!

In the far north, on the slopes of Mount Khamois stands the city of Olgendsongrad. It is a city that has helped to make the world a safer place from the Chaotic dragons, campaigning against and capturing these aerial menaces that swoop from the sky to steal flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and raze villages and expect princesses to be delivered, bound, but screaming to their cave entrances. It is city that has grown rich and fat on capturing, breeding, and butchering black, blue, green, red, and white dragons and making use of every single body part and organ. Of course, wizards and sorcerers queue up to buy a ready supply of draconic components for their spells and research—even from other realms and dimensions, but more popular is Dragonmeat™! Kept fresh in easy to open and easy to carry tins, Dragonmeat™ is a wonder of the age. A single tin will keep a man fed for week and keep him happy and ready for work. Except the wheels of the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant have ground to a halt and there no more fat dragon corpses going in and no more tins of Dragonmeat™ rolling off the conveyor belts. The Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant, located in the old Highroad King’s former state of the art prison, is silent and under siege. The authorities and the city’s three competing militias—the Copperbreath Guards and Copperbreath Riot Troops (both of whom would rather be collecting fines and/or bribes), the Bronzeclaw Dragoon Bravos with their wing-clipped hellfire-spouting draconic steeds (who would rather be invading another country), and the Silverwing Scouts (who would rather be in the air, looking cool)—are stuck outside, unable to get in because of Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant’s magical defences. Inside, some of the workers have halted work, revolted, and are demanding some rights. They have also taken hostages. Which makes breaking in and beating up the uppity workers a whole lot more difficult. If there were no hostages, the militias and the city authorities would only to worry about damage to the processing plant.

Enter the Player Characters, because amongst all of this mess, someone wants them to break in, end the siege, rescue the staff, and even smuggle in a sociologist! That is not all though, other people want to know what Dragonmeat™ is really made of, smuggle out as many tins as they can, grab some CARAT (Citizen Appraisal and Review According to Treasure) medallions (used for identification and status in Olgendsongrad), and more. The good news is that each one of these objectives pays well—very well. The bad news is that the Player Characters have about four hours (probably less) to get in, do what they need to do, and get out again before the authorities decide to get even more heavier-handed than normal…

Imagine if the world of How to Train Your Dragon got industrialised and then unionised, and then you wanted to run Ocean’s 11 in that world in a factory with Stephen King’s The Mangler at the heart of it. Then you turn it into an adventure using the retroclone of your choice. Pretty much what you would have is They’re Making Hostage Sausage at the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant!.

They’re Making Hostage Sausage at the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant! is from TheMerry Mushmen. Published following a Kickstarter campaign along with Drought Dragon Desolation, this is an adventure for OldSchool Essentials from Necrotic Gnome and is designed to be played with characters of Third and Fourth Level. It is a heist adventure. The Player Characters attend a briefing from their employer—by remote—and then case the joint, decide how they are going to break in, and then get out again, whilst attempting to achieve multiple objectives inside what is an arcano-mechanical dungeon. It can be played in a single session, and there are notes on how to do that, but that is a challenging prospect given how busy an affair this is and how detailed the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant and its environs are. It is primarily designed to be played through in four or five sessions, giving the Game Master to bring the city of Olgendsongrad to life and her players and their characters the opportunity to enjoy its industrial weirdness.

What the scenario does not include is a full description of the city of Olgendsongrad. Instead, the introduction, ‘Olgendsongrad – City of the dragon butchers’, is more of a travelogue that takes the players and their characters in through the ‘Gate of the Three Golds’ (dedicated to the three gold dragons that inaugurated its status today) and to the dive that is the Lowlives Hostelry and The Old King’s Bones where they can find a room and then get a drink from the owner’s undead staff—five skeletons with a limited understanding of spoken Common—for which he has a ‘Perpetual Licence to Necroanimate on the Premises’. There is an overview of the city, but it is limited. Instead, the scenario focuses upon the set-up and the location of the heist. This includes the weird briefing that the Player Characters will receive, details of the factions and persons/beings inside and out with interest in what is going on in the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant. There some delightfully weird individuals here—a Pigeon Army for hire, a bowler hat-wearing sentient crab on secondment from another plane, and the Kobold Sociologist who wants to accompany the Player Characters on the heist—for the Game Master to portray.

There is also timeline which serves as a countdown of events that will trigger the longer it takes the Player Characters to execute the heist as well as tables of events, alerts, and the environment inside the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant for when it is quiet or the workers inside are alerted. The Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant is described in some detail as you would expect. It continues the scenario’s combination of dark fantasy and unfettered industrialisation, from the rooftops and towers of the former castle down to the sewers and dungeons below ground, now turned into breeding pens for the stunted, wing-clipped dragons. The high degree of detail does mean that the Game Master has a lot to prepare, in particular, understanding how the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant would normally operate and how the players and their characters might go about planning and executing breaking in, and then impart the information that both would need to know to do that without revealing too much information or bias. It does not help that there is no advice on how to do that or no-one included who might be able to give information about possible ways in. The Game Master may well want to prepare an NPC or two who might be able to furnish the Player Characters with this information when they go looking.

In addition to the fully mapped Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant, the scenario also includes several appendices. These in turn, list the possible side effects of eating too many tins of Dragonmeat™; new magical or special items, like the AutoXbow 2000 (which gives the choice of four shots before reloading or one shot before reloading at +4 to hit and damage) and Goblin’s Eyeballs (candied meat that when consumed grant infravison for twelve hours, but a penalty to sight checks during the day); and the full list of people and dragon in the adventure; and names of people and places of Olgendsongrad. The penultimate appendix consists of a short scenario, ‘Smuggling Gig’, in which the Player Characters are hired to smuggle a dozen tins of Dragonmeat™ out of the city, which can be run as a prequel to the main scenario in They’re Making Hostage Sausage at the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant!. The last appendix consists of a full set of ‘Ogender adventurers’. These are intended to be used replacement characters or as hirelings. They all have slightly weird and wonky backgrounds as befits the setting. It is a pity that there is not a set of pre-generated Player Characters included as they would have helped some of the toe and weirdness of the setting more personal.

Another issue with They’re Making Hostage Sausage at the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant! is that its setting, an arcano-mechanical, industrialised city, does not fit the typical fantasy setting, and neither does its satirical tone. Which is a pity because there a lot more of the city of Olgendsongrad to explore and likely more adventures to be had. That said, its northern or Scandinavian-style setting does actually make it easier to place in a world, even if the other elements do not. One option might be the Midderlands setting from Monkey Blood Design, which does have a similar tone and could have suitable places to locate Olgendsongrad. Of course, the Game Master devise more of the setting as directed or fit the scenario into her setting, making the adjustments, as necessary.

Physically, They’re Making Hostage Sausage at the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant! is as well presented as you would expect a title to be from The Merry Mushmen. The artwork is good, but perhaps a little busy. The cartography is good too.

They’re Making Hostage Sausage at the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant! is not a traditional city supplement or a traditional scenario either. It leaves much of the city of Olgendsongrad to the imagination or until the publisher sets more scenarios there and the scenario is one that requires planning and speed upon the part of the players and their characters. To be fair, the scenario does not actually need a great of information about Olgendsongrad, since as a heist scenario, the Player Characters are meant to get in and get away, rather than hang around to see what happens next. In comparison to the previous scenarios from this publisher—Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow and The Horrendous Hounds of Hendenburgh—this is spikier where they are sharper. In addition, it is also harder to set up and run than either of those two scenarios because there is more information to impart to the players and their characters, and unfortunately the scenario does not help with that as it should.

They’re Making Hostage Sausage at the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant! is an entertaining scenario which introduces a weird, off-kilter fantasy setting that you definitely want to know more about. A meat processing plant is a great setting for a heist and if she can put the effort to prepare the scenario as it needs, both the Game Master will have a lot of fun with They’re Making Hostage Sausage at the Dragonmeat™ Processing Plant!.

[Fanzine Focus XLI] Carcass Crawler Issue #0

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

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

Carcass Crawler is ‘The Official Fanzine Old-School Essentials zine’. Published by Necrotic Gnome, Old School Essentials is the retroclone based upon the version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay and published in 1981, and Carcass Crawler provides content and options for it. It is pleasingly ‘old school’ in its sensibilities, being a medley of things in its content rather than just the one thing or the one roleplaying game as has been the trend in gaming fanzines, especially with ZineQuest. To date, Carcass Crawler #1, Carcass Crawler Issue #2, Carcass Crawler Issue #3, and Carcass Crawler Issue #4 have all focused on providing new Classes and Races, both in ‘Race as Class’ and ‘Race and Class’ formats as well as general support for Old School Essentials.

Carcass Crawler Issue #0 is an exception in one or two ways. Published as part of the Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Kickstarter campaign in November, 2020, it focuses almost exclusively on new Races and Classes with relatively little general support for the retroclone and was only available as part of the Kickstarter. Primarily, it presents eight new Classes, but it does ask the question, “Too Many Classes?”. The combination of Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy offers numerous Classes, all of them the roleplaying game’s variations upon traditional Dungeons & Dragons-style Classes. From issue to issue, Carcass Crawler offers more and more choice, but is it too much? The answer to the question is a bit of a prevarication, suggesting out that lots of groups like lots and lots of Classes because they like the choice, whilst also suggesting that the choice could be restricted according to the nature and flavour of the campaign the Game Master is running. The latter is not a new idea, but it would be fascinating to see the idea put into practice for Old-School Essentials with a set of campaign frameworks that see and explain the use of both standard Classes for Old School Essentials and those drawn from the pages of Carcass Crawler.

Carcass Crawler Issue #0 offers eight new Classes and three new fantasy Races. The first of the new Classes is the Arcane Bard, surprisingly inspired by the version of the Class found in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition! It is less than a variant upon the Druid, but more of a jack-of-all-trades Class which combines the abilities of the Fighter, the Magic-User, and the Thief. The Class’s songs can have an ‘Anti-Charm’ effect, cast arcane spells from Second Level, has various Thief-like skills, and in particular, has the ‘Lore’ skill that enables the Class to know about monsters, magic items, or heroes of folktale and legend. The Beast Master is alternative warrior to the Ranger, the Class forging strong bond with animal companions coming to be able to view their eyes and communicate with them empathically. The Changeling Class offers the chance for a player to roleplay a Doppelgänger! The Changeling’s ‘Beguile’ skill enables the Class to speak highly persuasively in an almost Charm-like effect, at least temporarily, and with ‘Shape-Stealing’ can mimic the forms of others, unconscious or slain, an effect lasting for one Turn per Level. The Chaos Knight can ‘Command the Dead’, effectively the reverse of the Cleric’s ‘Turn Undead’, cast spells at high Level, gains an Infernal Steed, and daily, touch a victim to ‘Life Drain’ and heal himself with the drained Hit Points. Essentially, the Chaos Knight is the equivalent to the classic anti-Paladin concept.

Where the Classes in Carcass Crawler Issue #0 gets interesting is the Mage, which instead of Vancian magic uses a skill system like the Thief Class. It is inspired by Tolkien’s Gandalf the Grey, and has the skills of ‘Detect Magic’, ‘Open/Close’ doors and locks, ‘Rally/Fear’, ‘Read Magic’, and ‘Suggestion’, as well as a powerful Mage’s Staff and even a magical bonus to Armour Class and limited ability to heal others. Although the Class can cast spells from scrolls, it is much, much less of the artillery-style Class seen elsewhere in other iterations of Dungeons & Dragons, offering more flexibility overall, but less damage output. The Mutoid is an odd Class that mixes in some Thief skills with abilities granted by the mismatched body parts of various creatures. For example, ‘Beast Ears’ gives better hearing, ‘Clawed Hand’ an improved unarmed attack damage, and ‘Sticky tongue’, which enables a Mutoid to grab a nearby object and even attack with it. Of the eight Classes featured in the issue of the fanzine, this is perhaps the least interesting and feels more as if it should be in a post-apocalyptic setting.

The Mycelian takes a classic of Dungeons & Dragons fantasy and turns it into a character Class. This is the Mushroom Men found in underground caverns everywhere and as a Class is a maximum of Sixth Levels Class that can spray pacifying or hallucinogenic spores daily, has a Infravision, no need to eat or sleep only rejuvenate daily, and gains increased damage and Armour Class as it grows one foot Level by Level. At Sixth Level, its ‘Fungal Reanimation’ enables it to reanimate human corpses as fungal zombies! Lastly, the Warden is a non-magical version of the classic Ranger. The Warden has better ‘Awareness’ and less easily surprised, and is better at ‘Foraging and Hunting’, ‘Pursuit’, ‘Surprise Attack’ in the wilderness, and ‘Tracking’.

Of the previous eight Classes, the Changeling, the Mutoid, and the Mycelian have adhered to Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy and done ‘Race as Class’. In other words, there is no separation of Race and Class. The three fantasy Races Carcass Crawler Issue #0 offer the alternative which adheres to Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy and does ‘Race and Class’. This gives greater flexibility, choice, and greater skills for all three Races.

The ‘Expanded Equipment’ lists and describes thirty-three items, from Backpack, Barrel, and Bedroll to Whistle, Wine (two pints), and Wolfsbane (one bunch). Serviceable.

Physically, Carcass Crawler Issue #0 is well written and well presented. The artwork is excellent and the cartography good. It sets the template for future issues.

Ultimately, Carcass Crawler Issue #0 is a problematic issue of the fanzine. Not because it is bad, because it is not. It actually sets the template for the issues that have followed and its content is eminently playable. Rather, the problem is that it was an exclusive to the Kickstarter and is no longer available. Perhaps there is scope for an Old School Essentials Class Companion which would reprint the Classes in this effectively ‘lost’ issue and other issues to reach a wider audience? In the meantime, if you have access to Carcass Crawler Issue #0, the equipment list is useful and the Classes offers more choices for your classic fantasy roleplaying.

Magazine Madness #45: Knock! #4

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

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Published in January, 2024 by The Merry Mushmen, the fourth issue of Knock! An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac comes as jam-packed as the previous issues. There is content drawn from blogs and content that is wholly new, there are new rules and new ways of doing old things, there are monsters and NPCs, there are spells and spellcasting, there are swords and scenarios, and there are thought pieces and threads that run through the issue. There is just about anything and everything in the issue that a reader with any interest in the Old School Renaissance might want to read about. There is even a ten-page section at the end of the issue called ‘Welcome to the OSR’ that explores how various authors encouraged Old School Renaissance style play at their table. (Despite the title, the section is not intended as an introduction to the Old School Renaissance, but the issue’s editorial does give pointers to that.) Along the way to that last section, there is plenty of art, some of it new, some of it in the public domain, some drawn from unexpected sources (Vincent Price makes a surprising appearance), and honestly, just almost too much stuff, too much to read, too much to use, too much to think about. Knock! An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac #4 really does pack a lot into its two-hundred-and-ten-pages.

Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the content in Knock! An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac #4 begins with the dust jacket which contains with ‘The Lost City Sandbox’, Eric Nieudan’s homage to Tom Moldvey’s B4 The Lost City, the classic scenario for Basic Dungeons & Dragons. Along with the cover, this is a great start to the issue which does explore several themes. The first of these draws upon the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien upon the hobby. Josh McCrowell develops its ideas into two articles. The first is ‘The Hobbit as a Setting’ which asks, “What if The Hobbit was the only inspiration for roleplaying?”, whilst the second, ‘In search of better travel rules’ looks at where travel rules go wrong and how they might be improved for the Old School Renaissance. The first examines some of the elements of The Hobbit not normally seen in roleplaying, such as song do a lot of work—means to remember, appeals to authority, taunts, and more—and the importance of journeys means that Experience Points should be earned from them. There are new rule suggestions for each aspect like spending Experience Points to name yourself or an item following a critical success, to add both a story and a bonus to play, and that animals can speak their own language. There is even the observation that The Hobbit alludes to the existence of guns in Middle-earth! The second article expands upon the point about travel in the first, pointing out its potential mishaps if handled poorly and offering solutions to those problems. The second article can be seen as adjunct of the first, but can be used also be used in general Old School Renaissance too, not just one directly drawn from The Hobbit. Nevertheless, the first article could be the basis for a mini-roleplaying game and campaign all of its own.

A second theme will be more familiar; the design of adventures (and dungeons). They lead off with Idiomdrottning presenting her ‘BLORB Principles’, a preparation-focused, no-plot preparation, playstyle. The aim is to have the elements to place and engage the players and their characters with, but not plots, and then advice on how to develop and add to those elements in play. Then designer Chris McDowall takes a look at them in ‘Patching’ and develops them further to look at the more immediate effects of encountering something in play that the Game Master did not prepare for as part of her preparation. McDowall suggests ways of improvising a fix in play rather than leaving it for subsequent preparation. In some ways, the advice is obvious, but the second article complements the first and together they make a thought-provoking pair.

The theme is further explored by a trio of articles by Joseph Manola. ‘Elements of Incongruity’ suggests adding unexpected elements alongside elements, including traits, individuals, and nature, and ‘Localism – The Adventure as Microclimate’ decries the genericism in modern Dungeons & Dragons and suggests that the Game Master focus on small regions and populate with unique, even singular monsters and perhaps with races that are not found elsewhere, the aim being to make them memorable. Good solid advice and both backed up by examples, but Manola’s ‘Romantic Fantasy and OSR D&D’ takes Dungeons & Dragons in another direction. At the heart of the article, is the simple idea that not every solution has to be resolved with violence and its shows a number of ways in which the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons—the reaction system, the morale system, the combat system, and the retainers system—can be all used to support that. The result is a game that focuses on relationship-building and non-violent forms of resolving conflict and getting rewarded for it.

Since Knock! #4 is for the Old School Renaissance, there are articles aplenty on magic, monsters, and treasure. Some of these are specific, some are not. The specific includes a complete magic system in ‘d200 Power Words of Sorcery!’, inspired by a gamebook from the eighties, but feeling very much like the television series Knightmare; the ‘Menagerie’ gives full stats and details for creatures such as Zedeck Siew’s Mob Demon, Danilo Moretti’s Mirror Mare, and James V. West’s Raptor Knight as well as Islayre d’Argohl gives four fully detailed villains; and a selection of swords awaiting stats in Letty Wilson’s ‘The Sword Librarian’. The less specific includes Jens Turesson’s weird ‘Telephone Pictionary Game as Spell Research’, which fortunately is completely untested; a ‘4d8 Golem Generator’ by Chance Dudhack; and Glynn Seal’s complete to what happens following the ‘Desecration’ of a grave for its goods and treasure. There is even a little crossover by Eric Nieudan. So, his ‘Dragons Should Be Unique!’ gives the means to create dragons from alignment, age, and element to personality, hoard, and quirk, whilst the accompanying ‘The never-ending saga of the Wyrm’ shows how it works with a complete example.

Each issue of Knock! always includes some new Classes with ‘Retinue of Rogues’ and this issue is no exception. Joseph Manola’s ‘The Ghoul Blooded’ lets a player create a character who gets more Ghoulish as he goes up in Levels, from having an acute sense of smell and very tough fingernails to learning all the benefits of cannibal cookery and tunnelling through the ground, and even though he will become an unliving monster, he is not undead! Manola follows this with ‘The Inquisitor’, who can pass judgements on others for various effects, and is an interesting variant upon the Cleric Class. Pierre Vagneur-Jones also details two new Classes. ‘The Cynocephasus’ is a dog-headed human who may be born that way or cursed and may, through good fortune, transform into a full human and take Levels in another Class. It is inspired the medieval legend of St. Christopher. ‘The Skiapod’ draws from the writings of Pliny the Elder to present a very agile one-legged human. They prefer to kick with their feet rather than use weapons, but there are no details to reflect this. These second two Classes are less useful than the first two and ‘The Skiapod’ is underwritten in comparison to ‘The Cynocephasus’.

Penultimately, Knock! #4 gives four short adventures in ‘Extraordinary Excursions’. Numbered Work’s ‘Swamp Renewal’ involves the Player Characters in an ecological battle between a wizard who is using golems to dig out peat in a swamp and a Lizardfolk Druid who wants him stopped. The scenario does not give a set ending, so it will be entirely down to the players, but there are consequences to whatever side the Player Characters choose. ‘Grandma’s Cottage, Inc. and Gift Shoppe’ by Glenn Robinson has a cosy feel until it does not as the Player Characters go in search of a lot of missing orphans. When the king puts out the call for the softest of feathers for his bed, the Player Characters are off in search of the softest feathers in the land only to be found on the Giant Arboreal Goose in Martin Orchard’s ‘A Fistful of Feathers’. A cross between a race—there are rival groups—and a pointcrawl, this is an entertaining scenario. Lastly, ‘The Mountain Hall of the Iron Witch’ by Rosie Grey is written for The Merry Mushmen’s CRACK!, but is easily adapted to the rules of the Game Master’s choice. The Player Characters find themselves shackled and forced to work in the Iron Witch’s mines and have to escape. This is a fun campaign starter. In fact, all four scenarios are easily adapted and would work with a number of different roleplaying games.

Lastly, Knock! #4 rounds out the issue with ‘Welcome to the OSR’. Here the issue explores some of the responses to the attempt by Wizards of the Coast to rewrite the terms of the Open Game Licence. The aim here is for the members of Old School Renaissance hobby to show this section to players of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and point them in the direction of the possibilities in the different play style. There is discussion too of several Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition-retroclone hybrids. For the most part, this preaching to the choir, but the first article, ‘Back to the Future (of D&Deering)’ by Daniel Norton gives a good comparison between the play styles and why a player might want to switch.

Physically Knock! #4 is impressively bright and breezy, just as with the previous three issues. The layout is cluttered in places and the text a little too busy, but on the whole, it is clear that a lot of attention has been paid to the layout. It needs a slight edit in places, but the artwork is good and the cartography excellent.

The honest truth is that the Game Master is never going to use everything in the pages of Knock! An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac #4. There is just too much. It is an embarrassment of riches. However, it gives the reader a lot of things to choose from and lots of ideas to think about. It is an absolute treasure trove of content for the Old School Renaissance and with so many contributors from the hobby, Knock! may well serve as a candidate for a focal point for the Old School Renaissance hobby. The reader could spend hours surfing the Internet for similar ideas and other content in Knock! An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac #4, or he could just get the issue and have it all at his fingertips in another literally solid issue of the magazine.

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An unboxing of Knock! #4 An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac can be viewed here.

Friday Fantasy: Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands

Far from any frozen climes, from any mountains or tundra, or ice-churned seas, lies the strangest of lands. Qaasuitsup Nunaat, or Land of Polar Darkness, is inhospitable, ice and snowbound, its once life-giving lake frozen over, and where there were fields that settlers from far away came to till and make new lives, there are dunes and drifts of snow. The paradise that drew so many is long gone, frozen in a wasteland that stands in contrast to the surrounding jungle and warm coastal waters. Overhead nightly hangs the aurora borealis, bringing colour to the region where there is white of snow and black of ice. Ancient myths tell of the story of Imeq-inua, or Lake Spirit, who saw to it that the land was protected and made fertile and prosperous. Then the lake froze and the temperature dropped. In the crops, the trees and plants, and any animal that could not flee the region died. The settlers fled and the few that remained froze or starved to death. Now wolves have the run of region, howling and hounding intruders, whilst strange Iced-Blooded Mutants have been encountered by those brave—or foolish—enough to want to investigate what has become of the former paradise. Perhaps hired to restore the region to its original balmy climate or discover where the Iced-Blooded Mutants come from and if they are a threat, or cast ashore shipwrecked on the coast, or drawn by whispers of the Lake Spirit herself, the Player Characters found themselves in a strangely frigid land.

Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is a mini-hexcrawl published by Angry Golem Games. Designed for Player Characters of between First and Third Level, it is the third in the publisher’s ‘Fortnightly Adventures’ series, begun with Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower, which is intended to provide a brand-new, original module every two weeks—each exploring a different biome, mysterious locale, and unique challenge. Having done a section of desert, a strange tower, and a mystery to uncover in The Hollow Tower and a volcanic island with a volcano, a temple with some hot springs, and more in Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact, the series switches to sub-polar region, all iced up and snowed under for Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands. It is written for use with Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, published by Necrotic Gnome Productions, which is based on the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh, and which together present a very accessible, very well designed, and superbly presented reimplementation of the rules.

What Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands details is an eleven-hexagon region of frozen tundra. Each takes roughly two hours to explore, so the region is not a large one overall and could easily be crossed in a day in any direction. In fact, it could actually be reduced in size without losing anything and it could easily be treated as a mini-location as a whole and placed in a single hex in a Game Master’s campaign. This might be to keep it as written as an oddly frozen location amidst much warmer climes or even move it to actual colder regions where its previous warmer and more fertile status would have been the oddity. 

The five locations in Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands consist of the ‘Experiments Base’, ‘Watchtower’, ‘Longhouse’, ‘Permafrost Caves’, and ‘The Lake’. Of these, only the ‘Experiments Base’ and ‘Permafrost Caves’ are fully mapped, but all are reasonably well detailed, bar ‘The Lake’ which is not detailed at all. ‘Experiments Base’ is where the scholars who brought about the changes to the valley with its radical climate change operate out of and continue to conduct research that their masters have since deemed unethical. The ‘Watchtower’ is home to a former guardian of the valley, whilst the ‘Longhouse’ is home to a gang of criminals desperately surviving after being washed ashore from the ship they were being transported in and attempted to take over. The ‘Permafrost Caves’ is home to a reclusive Frost Giant who prefers the company of the pack of wolves he keeps. The monsters and NPCs given full stats consist of the four scholars—two Wizards and two apprentices— and the new monster, the super-strong ‘Ice-Blooded Mutants’, who unarmed punches are so cold they inflict frostburn! The ‘Ice-Blooded Mutants’ are the result of another experiment by the scholars and are their servants and bodyguards.

There is a plot to Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands, the possibility that the Player Characters could discover the cause of how the valley became frozen and then perhaps reverse its effects. The problem is that as written, there is little in way of clues to find and little to really push either plot or Player Characters forward. It is as if the Player Characters are expected to wander around in the hope of finding something that might suggest a course of action. The few NPCs described—the scholars who are effectively the villains of the piece—are underwritten and lack both character and motivation. Similarly, beyond being reclusive, the Frost Giant residing in the ‘Permafrost Caves’ has no characterisation. In order to find a solution to the situation in the valley, the Player Characters do need to find why of dealing with him, but there are suggestions as how he might react to their presence. Lastly, the escaped prisoners at the ‘Longhouse’ will defend themselves, but that is about as much motivation as they are given.

Physically, Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is decently done. The layout is clean and tidy and the illustrations are good. However, the scenario very much needs an edit.

Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is disappointing. It is underwritten and it is underdeveloped. The plot concerning the current state of the valley and its potential reversal has been left for the Game Master to properly flesh out and the NPCs all need characterisation and explanations as to either what they know or what they want—and sometimes both. It does not help that the adventure is poorly edited with odd turns of phrase that make it jarring to read. Ultimately, Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is a flaccid affair, an indication that the concept of releasing a complete mini-adventure every two weeks has got beyond the creators and run out of steam. At its very best, Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is something that the prospective Game Master might want to develop properly herself, as that is only way to get it into a ready-to-run state.

Friday Fantasy: Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact

Far from any regularly ploughed sea routes and any civilised coast lies the remote island of Enjin no Chi—or ‘The Land of the Fire God’. Every sailor who has set their eyes upon it will say it is a place to be feared and none would be willing set foot upon its shores, for at its most northerly point sits a great volcano that spews out lava that runs in rivulets down into the forests that dominate the rest of the island to set their trees alight and when not spewing out lava, it belches out great clouds of ash that fall upon the rest of the island that fall in dry showers of heat. There are said to be monsters that lurk in the perpetual gloom of these clouds, and that is in addition to the ‘Fire God’ itself. Sailors and scholars might scoff at such an idea, but there are those who genuinely believe that Enjin no Chi is the home of fire god. They are the Honō no Dōshi, or ‘Flame Guides’, and their fanatism has driven them to commit many atrocities and villainous acts in their preparation to fulfil their life’s purpose—reaching Enjin no Chi and summoning the Fire God! Thus, ‘The Land of the Fire God’ is the setting for The Flame Pact that all Honō no Dōshi devoutly promise to keep.

Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact is a mini-hexcrawl published by Angry Golem Games. Designed for Player Characters of between Second and Fourth Level, it is the second in the publisher’s ‘Fortnightly Adventures’ series, begun with Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower, which is intended to provide a brand-new, original module every two weeks—each exploring a different biome, mysterious locale, and unique challenge. For The Hollow Tower, this was a section of desert, a strange tower, and a mystery to uncover, but for The Flame Pact, this is a volcanic island with a volcano, a temple with some hot springs, the lairs of two types of beetles, and the cultists’ camp and ritual site. It is written for use with Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, published by Necrotic Gnome Productions, it is based on the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh, and presents a very accessible, very well designed, and superbly presented reimplementation of the rules.

What Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact details is a seven-hexagon rosette of island and volcanic terrain. Each takes roughly two hours to explore, so the region is not a large one overall. In fact, it could easily be treated as a mini-location as a whole and placed in a single hex in a Game Master’s campaign. This would have to be a sea hex, but also the name of a cult suggests that the island is located somewhere similar to the Asian half of the Ring of Fire, this need not to be the case. The details of the cult are the easiest thing about the scenario to change. Apart from the seven-hexagon rosette format, what Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact shares with Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is that it has a roving environmental hazard. In the latter, this was a roving sandstorm that tore that the Player Characters and their possessions, whereas in the former it is the daily ash rains which strike a hex each for the day, burning anything and anyone there, and heating up any metal present. Thematically, it fits the setting, but one can only hope that it does not become a signature feature of the series. A handful of hooks are included to get the Player Characters involved, including the Player Characters being shipwrecked on the island, being hired to explore and map the island, forced to follow the cultists to the island and stop them from whatever they are planning, and hired to obtain the ‘Essence Seal’. These are not enthralling hooks and the Game Master will likely want to create her own that are stronger and likely tied to her campaign setting.

The four adventure locations in Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact consist of a ‘The Volcano’, ‘The Hot Springs Temple’, ‘The Cult’s Camping and The Ritual Site’, and the ‘Giant Beetle’s Lair’. Each is nicely detailed and has its own map, the more expanded maps being for the ‘The Hot Springs Temple’, ‘The Cult’s Camping and The Ritual Site’, and the ‘Giant Beetle’s Lair’—the latter having a sperate map and making it the longest entry. ‘The Volcano’s location is the simplest having a Lava Monster that roams its slopes guarding against intruders and part of the ritual preparations done for the summoning of the Fire God by the Honō no Dōshi. ‘The Hot Springs Temple’ is perhaps the oddest location since it is on the island and tended to by a group of monks without much explanation given that the island is all but unknown. Here is where the scenario could have benefitted from more detail. Similarly, the Magic-User leader of the cultists could have been given some indication as to his personality, but that said, the cultists are active in looking for further sacrifices needed for their rituals. So, the Player Characters need to approach their camp with care. Surprisingly, the most well developed encounter in the scenario is with a dead cultist, or rather his skeleton, in the ‘Giant Beetle’s Lair’. He is given some motivation, mostly self-pity, and the Player Characters can talk to him, though what is ultimate motive now is not made clear.

One major difference between Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact and Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is that Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact has a plot in that cultists are working to summon their ‘Fire God’. It is suggested by the scenario that the Game Master use a ‘doomsday clock’ to count up to the point where the Honō no Dōshi cultists succeed in summoning their ‘Fire God’ and the volcano erupts explosively, destroying the island in the process. The scenario also suggests that this will take twelve days, but that really is too long a period given the amount of adventure in the scenario. Halving this time would lend the scenario a greater sense of urgency and push the Cultists to act with greater haste. It would have been good too, for the Game Master to have been given some idea as to what the Cultists need to do to, step-by-step, if necessary, to complete the summoning.

Physically, Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact is decently done. The layout is clean and tidy, the illustrations good, and the hexcrawl is an easy read.

Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact is much like Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower before it. Some parts are reasonably detailed, but in others it is underdeveloped, especially in terms of characterisation and motivation. Yet there is more of a plot than Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower and in places more motivation, giving something for the Game Master to build upon herself. There is a basis of a solid, useful encounter location in Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact , but the Game Master will definitely want to flesh it out a bit more to give some much needed character.