[Fanzine Focus XLII] Gamma Zine #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 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.

Gamma Zine #4 was published in March, 2025, some four years after Gamma Zine #3! Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign for both Gamma Zine #4 and Back to BasiX #13. The delay between issues means that this the editorial is essentially an apology for the delay! The content proper starts with ‘Interview with Brian Shutter, Super Savage Systems’, the designer and publisher of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland, the gonzo vomit-punk post-apocalyptic cassette futurism, using Basic Dungeons & Dragons. It explores his gaming history and the origins of the roleplaying game, but really does not make the setting itself interesting enough for the reader to want to take a look.

‘Horrors of the Wasteland’ adds new threats for post-apocalyptic settings. These include the ‘Mind Mongrel’, vicious canine hunters who form bonded pairs for life and use to telepathy to hunt together, such that a lone Mind Mongrel is at a penalty to attack. The Mind Mongrel can be trained as a pet, but this can only be done with puppies. The ‘Intelligent Gorilla’ is less interesting and just too basic. There is scope to present intelligent primates in a variety of ways for post-apocalyptic settings, but this ignores such possibilities entirely to just give a standard gorilla more brains.

‘Class Option – The Scaled’ continues the fanzine’s exploration of character concepts through the use of Classes, character archetypes which do not appear in Gamma World, First Edition. ‘The Scaled’ has high Constitution and limited Dexterity due to repeated exposure to radiation that has caused his skin to harden into scaly skin. He is also immune to petrification and has greater resistance to radiation. The Class can either have physical and mental mutations or use the extra abilities included with it description, such as ‘Enhanced Radiation Toughness’, ‘Steel Scales’, ‘Prehensile Tail’, and more. This is a solid Class which would work in a variety of post-apocalyptic roleplaying settings.

As would the Incendiary Grenade, Radiation Grenade, and other grenade types in ‘Artifacts of the Ancients. ‘Adventure #1 – Prepper’s Paradise’ will require a bit more work, but describes a surprisingly extensive family-built bunker built to survive the apocalypse. It has long been abandoned, flooded with radiation and infested with plants and bugs. Part of the bunker is hidden, so the Player Characters may not explore its depths. Ultimately, this is really only an opportunity missed as there is no reason given for the Player Characters to explore the bunker. Perhaps with a hook or two, there might have been? If they do, there is potential for the Player Characters to restore the bunker and turn it into a base.

The fanzine’s fiction, ‘The Hunted’, continues. Its continuing appearance is an excuse—or is that a need?—to go back and read the previous given that it has been so long between issues. It takes a while to get back into this, and it is enjoyable enough.

The second adventure in the issue is ‘Adventure #2 – Cicero’s Zoo’. This describes what was before the apocalypse a private zoo of endangered and deadly creatures. Its tight security and walls meant that it has survived, but still affected by radiation and other biological or chemical agents. The scenario takes the idea of the intelligent ape given earlier in ‘Horrors of the Wasteland’ and develops its potential. It is not an adventure as such, but rather an adventure site that the Game Master can add to her campaign. In typical Planet of the Apes fashion, it is led by an ape with a Classical name, in this case Cicero. He is intelligent and can read and talk and will trade and treaty with visitors. The zoo is nicely detailed and has a good map—though it could have been bigger for clarity—useful if the Player Characters want to raid it or break in. Cicero is given some motivations, but there is little in the way of advice for the Game Master on how to use it. The Game Master will need to work hard to do more with this, but otherwise, Cicero’s Zoo is ready to drop straight into her campaign.

The issue moves to a close with a Loot Table for ‘Office Desk Search’ which is serviceable enough and two ‘Artifact Use and Operation Charts’, one for ‘Simple Trap Detection’ and one for ‘Mechanical Trap Detection’, which develop the concept of working out what an artefact does into a broader application. Lastly, the issue closes with ‘In Memoriam: Jim Ward’, a short tribute to the designer of Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship, the progenitor of Gamma World. It is fitting, but perhaps a bit short.

Physically, Gamma Zine #4 is neat and tidy. It is decently written and nicely illustrated with good art throughout. Each of the scenarios is accompanied by excellent maps.

The ultimate problem for Gamma Zine #4 is the gap between it and its previous issue. This leaves the fiction unmoored and requiring more work to remind the reader what it is about. Elsewhere though the content is good and it is useful, but the adventures warrant a bit more to make immediately useful and applicable to a Game Master’s campaign. 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. It is debatable whether the wait for Gamma Zine #4 has been worth it. The content is good, but the adventures need some plot and some hooks to make them really useful.

[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.