Operative Disorientation

SLA Industries is the roleplaying game set in a far future dystopia of corporate greed, commodification of ultraviolence, the mediatisation of murder, conspiracy, and urban horror, and serial killer sensationalism. S.L.A. Industries has its headquarters on Mort City, its rain sodden, polluted, and overly populated heart, located on the industrially stripped planet of Mort and surrounded by five Cannibal Sectors, and from here it governs the planet and the World of Progress beyond, encompassing all of known space. It is here the citizens come from far and wide to enlist in Meny to become SLA Operatives and part of the mediatised programme even as they protect SLA Industries and the World of Progress from innumerable threats from without—and some from within. SLA Operatives are the creme de la creme, whose actions caught on camera garner them sponsorship, TV deals, promotions, better missions, and the best weapons that the company can offer. Every SLA Operative is a would be star. You, however are nobody, a fuck-up in the waiting, a wannabe without the brains to realise how shit you are, thinking that you are really hot, when you are just waiting for an actual SLA Operative to slice and dice you without even thinking about it or a serial killer to add you to his kill count and his path to recognition.

This is not the subject of SLA Industries, the flagship roleplaying game from Nightfall Games, but of SLA Borg, a wholly idiotic interpretation of the setting of the World of Progress—in more senses than one—that requires an entirely different and more brutally blunt game system. That game system is Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. What this means is that SLA Borg brings the World of Progress to the Old School Renaissance, though not SLA Industries since the approach to playing both roleplaying games varies widely. Funded via a successful Kickstarter campaign, SLA Borg includes the full rules for creating very disposable anti- or non-‘heroes’, handling actions and combat, a bestiary of foes that are going to be really annoyed if the fuckwits bother them, and the means to facilitate the Broken Biscuits’ probable screwups.

SLA Borg takes the setting deep into Downtown, the home of the Broken Biscuits, the civilian housemates—so think The Young Ones believing themselves to be members of the SPG—who think they are an Operative squad. This is because in the weird architecture of their sector, the housemates have been affected by The Dream, the virulent infection that decays reality. Under the effect of The Dream and the massive influence of drugs—lots of drugs—and alcohol, the Broken Biscuits think they are doing good and daily visit the sector house to collect assignments known as BPNs or ‘Blue Print News’ files from Mr. Slayer in person. Except what is actually happening is that they scrounging ‘BPMs’ or ‘Bus Pass Missions’ off the floor under the eye of a large, black and white cat, which surprisingly looks like Mr. Slayer, and is thus therefore known as Mister Slayurrr. Then they go out, attempt to complete the BPM and so help the local community be a better place, when in actuality, the local community collectively the Broken Biscuits are useless wankers. And if they get hurt, then they can get to Mike’s Kebabs, where they can scarf down donar kebabs consisting of surprisingly aromatic meat of dubious origin doused in sauce so hot they will be glad they keep their toilet rolls in the fridge. All because the kebabs of Mike’s Kebabs are renowned for their healing properties.

Rather than creating a Biscuit from scratch, a player selects one of the housemates out of the eight included, such as Digglet, a dayglo pink Manchine who thinks he is Digger, the meanest Manchine ever; Toothy Grin, either a giant rat or someone in a giant rat suit, who thinks he is both a mascot for Big Smile Burgers and a giant rat; and Klick’s End Kenny, a glue-sniffing, cider swigging lout. Then he rolls for his Knucklehead Origin, like Asylum Escapee, Plain Ass Scuzz, and Sloppy Drunk Bum, and his Speciality, like Knives Everywhere—really everywhere, Idiot Savant, and Quest Giver, who is really good at scouring the bus terminal floor for BPMs. The Biscuit is then put through a very simple lifepath system which determines adjustments to the stats—Agility, Knowledge, Presence, Strength, and Toughness, and rolls to see if they are actually alien. If they are, they are probably either deluded—actually, more deluded—or faking it.

Mechanically, SLA Borg is quite simple. Actions and attacks require a roll of a twenty-sided die to beat a Difficulty Rating, from incredibly simple or six, all the way up to should not be possible or eighteen, with twelve being normal. Stat ratings are added as necessary. Combat typically requires a roll against a Difficulty Rating of twelve and the combat rules do cover the use of firearms as well as melee weapons. This includes simple rules for handling ammunition. Rolls of twenty are critical and rolls of one are fumbles. The mechanics are player facing, so that a player will roll for his Biscuit to attack and then roll for his Biscuit to avoid being attacked.

So what do you play in SLA Borg? It includes ideas for BPMs of all types—Mauve, Pink, Starch, Bleu, Lemon, Brown, and because Nightfall Games is a Scottish publisher, Tartan and Paisley. There are almost all sixty or so ideas contained in the BPM section. They vary in detail, a few being ready to play, most requiring some degree of preparation. There is a bestiary too and details of various drugs and alcoholic drinks. Despite this, SLA Borg is not really suited to long term play. After all, there is no means of improving a Biscuit, no means of moving up or getting out...

Physically, SLA Borg is very well-presented. The artwork is as good as to be expected for a vaguely SLA Industries-related supplement, the writing is decent, and it gets away with not needing an index with its relatively short page length.

So… SLA Borg is a dumb game. Intentionally so. It is meant to be dumb. You are playing dumb characters, doing dumb things, because they hold dumb beliefs. Yet the Biscuits in SLA Borg are more victims than they are inadvertent monsters (though they may end doing foolishly monstrous things), victims of the World of Progress, victims of the hopelessness, victims of The Dream. Ultimately, they are victims because they actually want to be better and they want to make a difference, because they know that is what a SLA Operative is meant to do in order to get famous, but none of this is attainable and their attempts to do better and be better, are doomed to failure. SLA Borg is dumbass fun, playing fuckups who are going fuck up, just for a ‘Bus Pass Mission’ or two, but at the same time, it does shine a light, from below, on just how rotten SLA Industries and the World of Progress really is.

A Murderous Miscellany

There have been times when it was very hard to find any support for SLA Industries and times when it was hard to support SLA Industries. The roleplaying game set in a far future dystopia of corporate greed, commodification of ultraviolence, the mediatisation of murder, conspiracy, and urban horror, and serial killer sensationalism, has had a somewhat roving publishing history, but back in 2020, when the publisher, Nightfall Games, just as it was preparing SLA Industries, Second Edition, COVID-19 struck. In response, the publisher released Ex-Mass, a PDF supplement of support that fans of the roleplaying game could play quickly and easily with relatively little preparation. This was followed up with a new series, Progress Reports, which provided further support for the World of Progress, in the form of BPNs, campaigns, threats, and more. By 2022, Nightfall Games had managed to publish SLA Industries, Second Edition and would continue to publish further Progress Reports through the COVID-19 lockdowns and beyond. Today, Nightfall Games has classified the first, Ex-Mass, as a Progress Report, and collected it into a slim volume of its own, Progress Reports Codified – Zero to Five. They are each separate in the supplement, so they come complete with their editorials as they originally appeared, so they feel just a little like time capsules from a very strange time.

Progress Reports Codified – Zero to Five opens with what was Ex-Mass, but is now SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Progress Report Issue Zero, a short piece which offers a Hunter Sheet, ‘Copycat Jack’, in which the Operatives are tasked with tackling a vandal, dressed like a cartoon version of Halloween Jack, who has gone from being a nuisance to a danger. The scenario is built around Halloween as a festival and event on the Contract Circuit, which is popular across the whole of Mort, and is short, but escalates in a surprising, though in both an annoying and a challenging way. Accompanying this is a short history of the battle taxi, which does feel too short, but still informative. A picture or two, would have been useful too, but it is a nice little article.

SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Progress Report Issue One, steps up and provides the Game Master with a campaign. This is ‘The Uptown Funk’, which gets down and dirty and into the Mort’s sex trade—one of several adult themes which run throughout the supplement. Involving a private member’s club and extortion, this is as dark and seedy as you would imagine, and has a nasty sting in the tale for one Player Character. Accompanying it is ‘Family Ties’, an updated scenario that originally appeared in Role Player Independent Volume 1, Issue 12. It opens with the Player Characters working for the Department of Investigation to investigate the death of an Operative. It haphazardly (by intent) shifts into a hunt for a serial killer. The hunt is made all the more challenging by the nature of the serial killer, although it will help if one of the Operative is an Ebon. The scenario is nicely detailed and the updating has been handled well. Rounding out the issue are two NPCs, a Shaktar Operative who is not a warrior as is traditional for his people, but a medic—and one with an embarrassing secret, whilst the other is Wraithen sniper with a sense of humour. Full stats are provided and they can be used as replacement Player Characters too.

SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Progress Report Issue Two expands in size and content, focusing now on new additions for the then new second edition of SLA Industries. Here it is upon the Carrien and the Cannibals and their activities, previously explored in detail in the superb Cannibal Sector 1. First, the idea that the Carrien each might collect trinkets and keep them in boxes is weird and quirky, but ‘Sector Treasures’ shows that they do and provides tables for what might be found in their trinket boxes. Second, the Harridan is a new type of Cannibal, previously unseen, which has been penetrating Inner Downtown where it has been leading cults dedicated to Rawhead. Her description is accompanied by four BPNs that if played through, reveal more and more about the Harridan. ‘Old Meg Rattlebones’ has a folkloric feel, with children in a Downtown Sector telling tales of a hideous witch lurking at their bedroom windows at night, her entry foiled by a cat skull placed on the windowsill. Of course, the authorities have been ignoring such bedtime stories and now it is too late! There are more BPNs in ‘The BPN Cookbook’, ten hooks that the Game Master can develop into fuller missions. ‘Red Head’ is one of several pieces of dark fiction the Progress Reports and Progress Reports Codified – Zero to Five that shows how bad or at least, how bleak, life on Mort is.

SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Progress Report Issue Three carries on from SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Progress Report Issue Two with the second half of ‘The BPN Cookbook’, adding a further six missions for the Game Master to develop. However, the most interesting entry here is ‘Vevaphon: The End’ which explains why the Vevaphon is no longer in SLA Industries, having been introduced in the Karma Sourcebook, published by Wizards of the Coast in 1994. This is an in-game explanation that also charts the rise of the Doppelganger Institute that developed the Vevaphon and not only its fall from grace with the failure of the programme, the efforts of SLA Industries to disavow its sponsorship of the programme and destroy all the remaining Vevaphon. It is an engaging colour piece that is backed up with a campaign seed that begins with a Hunter Sheet for a rogue Manchine and leads into revelations about the last of the reviled and sad creatures. It also enables the game Master to use the Vevaphon in her own campaign. The issue also describes The Pit, the premier, most famous and infamous, night club in Mort, open to SLA Operatives, and a detailed scenario, ‘Beyond the Wall, which needs expanding, but takes the Player Characters on what is supposed to be a milk run into Cannibal Sector 1 to provide protection for a documentary crew. Of course, it goes wrong and the Player Characters find themselves stranded and long way from the wall that separates Mort from Cannibal Sector 1. The issue comes to a close with some good NPCs, including a very pushy Soft Company salesperson, an overly helpful young ganger, and more!

SLA Industries does focus on Cannibal Sector 1, so it is good to see coverage of Cannibal Sector 2 in SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Progress Report Issue Four. However, its description of a former industrial site dedicated to provision of water to Mort is not nearly as interesting as the wealth of information and background given in Cannibal Sector 1. There is much more development required here before the Game Master can use this in her campaign, but she is helped by the addition of stats for common threats and some mission ideas. Overall, a good introduction to the area. ‘Conflict Aliens – Cyclones’ introduces one of the species that SLA Industries is in long term conflict as part of the ongoing wars and their response which would ultimately result in a bioengineered virus being unleashed upon Mort. This is the ‘Cyconaviridae’ virus, which quickly transforms the infected into an enhanced member of a collective that together methodically and quietly works to further spread the infection. It is accompanied with some scenario hooks such as having a viral outbreak amongst a Shiver outpost at a Bridgehead in Cannibal Sector 1 or an accidental outbreak in Downtown. There are no specific BPNs attached to the ideas, but the ideas are very workable if the Game Master wants to bring the horror of infection and loss of personality into her campaign. More light-hearted are ‘Making a Killing’ and ‘Cannibal Run’, although neither sound it! The former discusses the trade in BPN Coins, rewards from SLA Industries for completing missions that Operatives can purchase and if they want, subsequently sell to the thriving market of civilian collectors. It provides another revenue stream for the financially strapped Operative and adds yet more flavour to the World of Progress. The latter, ‘Cannibal Run’, makes entire sense given that one of the SLA Industries authors is a very dedicated racing fan and provides some suggestions races might be run in Cannibal Sector 1. The Game Master will need to develop them further and flesh events with more detail, but the concept is perfect for the Operative with a high Drive skill.

Progress Reports Codified – Zero to Five comes to a close with SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Progress Report Issue Five. It opens on a sombre note, highlighting the sad death of Morton T. Smith, one of the earliest contributors to SLA Industries, at the age of 53. Likewise, it ends on a typically bleak note with ‘The Murder of Croaks’, the last fiction in the issue and the anthology. The issue consists of the single scenario, ‘Here Piggy, Piggy!’. This exposes the Operatives to corporate shenanigans at Bonk!, a soft company specialising in advertising. The ventilation tunnels of the Bonk! Offices have become infested Landorian Bullet Pigs and the managing director has already been attacked. The Operatives are assigned by the Department of Sanitation to clear out the contamination and present the invoice to those responsible! This is an entertainingly detailed scenario with an emphasise on interaction and investigation whose possible outcomes are explored in similar detail. This includes advice on sponsorship and the use of catchphrases in game. Overall, this is a real change of tone from the horror and combat typical of other BPNs and is a really fun scenario.

Physically, Progress Reports Codified – Zero to Five is very well-presented. It needs a slight edit in places, but the artwork is as good as to be expected for a SLA Industries supplement, the writing is decent, and it gets away with not needing an index with its relatively short page length.

Even if the Game Master has the individual issues of the Progress Reports, it is still great to have them in print and all in one place in Progress Reports Codified – Zero to Five. This is a great looking book that really is replete with highly gameable content as well as content that the Game Master can further develop herself. Elsewhere, ‘Vevaphon: The End’ is a terrific piece of world building that also neatly explains a change in SLA Industries, Second Edition, whilst ‘Making a Killing’ adds colour and flavour. Progress Reports Codified – Zero to Five is a miscellany that every SLA Industries Game Master is genuinely going to find useful and want to have with so much playable material in its pages.

[Fanzine Focus XXXIII] The Slasher, Issue One

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

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. However, despite the revival of the fanzine having been specifically part of the Old School Renaissance, the format has also been revived for other roleplaying games too, and sometimes in quite a clever fashion, into the bargain.

The Slasher, Issue One is a fanzine for SLA Industries, the roleplaying game set in a far future dystopia of corporate greed, commodification of ultraviolence, the mediatisation of murder, conspiracy, and urban horror, and serial killer sensationalism. It focuses in particular upon the elements of ultraviolence, the mediatisation of murder, and serial killer sensationalism—the latter in particular--and does so in a particularly British style. For The Slasher, Issue One is not a gaming supplement per se, but rather an in-game publication about the culture and adulation of serial killers in the World of Progress. Its inspiration is The Digger, a long-running and very local to the city of Glasgow newspaper or magazine focusing on crime and corruption in the city. It is written though, in the style of a ‘Red Top’ tabloid newspaper, like The Sun or The Daily Mail, full of sensationalist writing and both embracing that sensationalism and condemning it at the same time, presented as exactly the sort of thing that the discerning citizen of Downtown would read. Highbrow this is not.

The front-page article of The Slasher, Issue One is utterly typical of the Red Top mentality. Titled ‘Loony Bin Lover’ it tells how teenage tearaway Debbie Roscoe, described in turn as ‘feckless’ and ‘thick-skulled’ (as in, ‘too thick to listen to sense’), is in love with the up-and-coming serial killer, Loony Bin, does not listen to the warnings of either her parents or her friends, and might even be pregnant (or ‘up the duff’) by him! The language and the tone captures the outrage at the idiocy and directionless of today’s youth in the World of Progress, whilst praising Loony Bin for his string of kills, and all done to sensationalise everything and anything. And it is this tone which pervades the whole issue, such as in ‘Nice to Mince Meat You’, in which the patrons of the soup kitchen, Helping Hand Hall, are complaining that they are being served bread and soup again, after the Elmersons Cognate took the place over and served their murder victims to said patrons in ‘pork-adjacent’ pies. Despite the source of the ingredients, the patrons really miss their meaty ‘treat’, and are thus treated as being thick in the article. Even serial killers cannot escape this kind of treatment, as in ‘The Big Uni Cheese Caper’ in which the Squeaky Barkers cognate of serial killers attempt a heist from a cheese factory in order to save on their packed lunches and it goes disastrously, foolishly wrong or in ‘Keep It In the Family’, which updates the latest doings of the Family Values’ cognate as broadcast on a Big Brother-style reality television show. In both cases, the serial killers are treated as figures of fun and foolishness.

Of course, at the same time, The Slasher, Issue One completely embraces the serial killer sensationalism of the World of Progress that places them on pedestals to be revered and lauded by the general public even as they commit bloody slaughter. In ‘Making Plans For Nigel’, Mr and Mrs Horton are literally mentally torturing their son Nigel in order to turn away from his desire to become an accountant and turn him into a serial killer which will make him famous—the serial killer equivalent of the stage mother. In ‘All the Goss’, the gossip column for The Slasher, the rumour is reported that old fan favourite—Socko (so called for the item of clothing he wears on his head)—has returned and is killing again, and that the number one serial killer, Halloween Jack, killed fifty SLA Industries employees during a Shift Block change (and more), and so on. Similarly, the authorities come in for a bit of a kicking, such as ‘Complete Balls-Up’, which details how a drunken mistake by Lieutenant Bergamot Balls, a Shiver commander, led to a murder spree by the Splash Damage Cognate and its subsequent escape, and in ‘Rotten To The Core!’ how the young scion of a notorious crime family is getting away with murder because of the family’s ties to SLA Industries.

There are also classified adverts and a letters page in The Slasher, Issue One, but what there is not is any game stats for SLA Industries. This is because the fanzine is an in-game resource that the players can read as much as the Game Master. Everything though, in the pages of the fanzine can be developed into something playable, enabling the players and their SLA Operatives to become involved in the stories that they have read about. Ideally, the Game Master will want to refer to Threat Analysis 1: Collateral for that and tailor the various serial killers whose exploits are described here to her campaign.

Physically, The Slasher, Issue One is perfect. With its big bold blocks of red and black it captures to a tee the look and feel of a tabloid newspaper and then goes one further with writing that salaciously emulates the sordid style of British Red Tops with its delight for a good punning headline. Then of course, the artwork. Again, perfect. 

The sizzling, soar away The Slasher, Issue One is a horrible product, idolising serial killers and acts of mass murder, as much as it is belittling the general populace. Yet it is horridly, fascinatingly funny because it is a satire on British newspaper journalism as much as it is on the horror to be found in SLA Industries’ World of Progress.

SLA Species I

SLA Industries Species Guide 1: Shaktar – Wraithen is a supplement for SLA Industries, the roleplaying game set in a far future dystopia of corporate greed, commodification of ultraviolence, the mediatisation of murder, conspiracy, and urban horror, and serial killer sensationalism. S.L.A. Industries has its headquarters on Mort City, its rain sodden, polluted, and overly populated heart, located on the industrially stripped planet of Mort and surrounded by five Cannibal Sectors, and from here it governs the planet and the World of Progress beyond, encompassing all of known space. It is here the citizens come from far and wide to enlist in Meny to become SLA Operatives and part of the mediatised programme even as they protect SLA Industries and the World of Progress from innumerable threats from without—and some from within. Some of the most loyal of citizens who serve as Operatives are the Shaktar and the Wraithen and have been part of the Operative Programme since the start and it is both of these that the subject of the species guide for SLA Industries.

SLA Industries Species Guide 1: Shaktar – Wraithen is a slim volume that divides its content equally between the two very different species. These are the honourable warriors that are the Shaktar and the hyperactive hunters that are the Wraithen. In both cases it provides details of each species, their history and home world, culture and outlook, and connection to SLA Industries. This is supported with details of some of the species indigenous to their homeworlds, arms and armour particular to their species, and new additions to the rules. These include new skill packages and Traits for use with Player Character or NPC creation as well as Feats for cinematic action, and their outlook and attitude towards the other species who typically sign up as a SLA Operatives. Beyond this, there is extra content as such as details of the Shaktar faith and of ‘The Killbox’ in Mort City, an attraction in Little Polo—the Wraithen focused entertainment district—where a five-kilometre square area underground has been turned into a killzone watched by a live audience that only one team has so survived. Plus, there are two BPN—BluePrint News files—tasks tied to the Wraithen Liberation Front, a political movement dedicated to Wraithen life to what it once was on Polo before SLA Industries arrived, and a Hunter Sheet for ‘The Copycat Killer’, which directs the Operatives to track down a serial killer who is murdering the bird-like Nephrons in the style of a Wraithen presently arrested as the perpetrators of the crimes.

There is a sense of duality which rules throughout the supplement. Most obviously in the two very species presented in its pages. The Shaktar, stoic, valorous, honourable, and always at war with something—themselves, the pitiless nature of society, or an enemy of SLA Industries, versus the Wraithen, ultra-competitive, win-at-all-costs, casually sadistic, impulsive hunters with low attention spans. Yet even within the Shaktar, there is a duality, between the ideologies of those who follow the Shining Moons and those who follow the Shadow Moons. The Shining Moon Tribes have long been allied with SLA Industries, whereas the Shadow Moon Tribes worship the White Earth. The Shaktar embrace war and conflict, but feel the need to counter this violence by paying a debt to society, by doing good works, helping others and so on. They call this ‘The Sword and the Bowl’. When a Shaktar has no purpose, such as undertaking an ordeal, pursuing an injustice, going after the Ion Pirates—Shaktar who follow the Dark Moons, he is unbalanced and tip into its counterpart, Emptiness. This is the absence of joy, faith, and compassion and the Shaktar is in danger of slipping onto the path under the Dark Moons. Dualism plays out again and again with the Shaktar, adding depth and detail, but not so with the Wraithen. They are much more straightforward and direct, having no sense of reflection like the Shaktar do, regarding the need for faith and honour as a waste of time when one could instead be winning and being the best. The focus for them and on them is on the immediacy of what they want.

In the first half of SLA Industries Species Guide 1: Shaktar – Wraithen, the focus is on the Shaktar, reptilian humanoids of The Shining Moon Tribes and the balance in the Shaktar species. The descriptions are full of details that the Game Master can use to bring their culture to life. For example, the ‘sword’ aspect of ‘The Sword and the Bowl’ is easy to fulfil with combat and violent deeds, but the ‘bowl’ requires charitable, unselfish deeds, which need to be resolved and accepted by a Shaktarian Confessor or Priest. Here then is a roleplaying opportunity that can only be made the more interesting if the Shaktar’s squadmates have to get involved too. Ordeals—grand, self-appointed quests—drive a Shaktar’s actions too, so every Player Character Shaktar should be on one or thinking about one. The Game Master can flesh out the Player Character Shaktar’s relation with the Confessor or Priest using the accompanying description of Shaktar religion, whilst the Tribal Education packages are good for Shaktar who are native to the worlds of the Shaktar Nation, though all Shaktar trace their lineage back to the eight tribes or castes. The supplement adds Language: Shaktarian and Lore: Shaktarian, though only the Progressive dialect of the Shaktarian language can be spoken outsiders, the Dawn language bing incomprehensible and unpronounceable. New equipment includes the HonourBound armour, which can only be given as a gift to those Shaktar on an ordeal and must be worn until the ordeal is complete, Ion weapons that fire positively-charged ions, S’k’-r’n blades made from the bones of personally vanquished foes, and legendary weapons—weapons, armour, and artefacts that have lost since the Conflict Era and Green and Yellow BPNs are used to recover. Shaktar starting skill packages include Gallant, Stalwart, K’th Priest, and R’tha Champion—the latter from a religious sect of warriors dedicated to the destruction of anything connected to the White Earth. Feats include Battle Lust for Body to act before Initiative is rolled for and Shadow Blood for Bravado and a Shaktar who has family members who have fallen into Emptiness or aligned with the Shadow Moon Tribes. Can he be trusted? Rules are included for Shaktar honour codes, Lineage, Acclaim, and Blessings, enabling the Game Master to bring out more Shaktar culture in play.

By comparison, the Wraithen are shallow. What the highly competitive fast-moving apex predators are not—as the supplement makes clear is ‘comedy cat people’, ‘attractive to other species’ because they are too alien with their movement and big jaws full of teeth, or indeed, savages, honourable, stupid, or actually evil. It is a warning upfront to the Game Master and player alike on how to roleplay given how alien they are. There plenty of details also what does keep their attention span, such as the ‘Hlicks’ or ‘Hunting Flicks’ which show fast-moving prey animals hunting and culminate in a bloody kill (there is the suggestion of underground Hlicks where the target is a humanoid being hunted by skilled SLA Operatives), Wraithen focused adverts, and Little Polo, the district specifically designed to cater to Wraithen. There is some background on the Wraithen homeworld of Polo, extremely cold such that Wraiten need a bio-implant to encounter the effects of the heat on Mort, but in someways the means of getting off it and into SLA Operatives training at Meny is more interesting, SLA Industry having turned the application process for young Wraithen into a game! New skill packages include the Media Darling, the Big Game Hunter, the Saboteur, the Sneak Thief, and many more. Wraithen specific hardware includes the WWD ‘Heart Stopper’ Blade, originally designed as a filleting and flensing knife, but now used as a finesse weapon, WWD ‘Monofangs’, and FEN 313 ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’ Tranq Rifle, which can fire a range of drug-delivering darts. Some tranquilise the target—with or without leaving an aftertaste, and some like Kickoff, causes uncontrollable and indiscriminate aggression, so can be used to make a hunt all the more challenging. There is the comment that bored Wraithen are known to fire a dose of this into their squadmates because they simply bored… Besides a wide range of arms and armour—WWD ‘Ishmael’ Harpoon Launcher from hunting Ice Whales on Polo anyone?—there are a lot of new Feats, such as ‘Nine Lives’ for Body, with which they avoid a killing blow, but are knocked prone and stunned and ‘Me?’ for Bravado which enables a Wraithen to feign innocence by blaming someone else. New Traits include Double Jointed, Perfect Balance, and (really, really) Short attention Span. 

Physically, SLA Industries Species Guide 1: Shaktar – Wraithen is very well-presented. The artwork is as good as to be expected for a SLA Industries supplement, the writing is decent, and it gets away with not needing an index with its relatively short page length.

SLA Industries Species Guide 1: Shaktar – Wraithen is a good resource for the player and Game Master of SLA Industries alike. The player has extra background about his character and plenty of new character options to help him bring them into play, whilst the Game Master has content she can use to showcase both the Shaktar and the Wraithen and their culture and outlook in her campaign and provide species specific content for Shaktar and Wraithen Player Characters, both on their homeworlds and off.

Extraordinary Enemies

Threat Analysis 1: Collateral is simply put, the bestiary and monster book for S.L.A. Industries, the roleplaying game set in a far future dystopia of corporate greed, commodification of ultraviolence, the mediatisation of murder, conspiracy, and urban horror, and serial killer sensationalism. Mort City, its rain sodden, polluted, and overly populated heart, located on the industrially stripped planet of Mort and surrounded by five Cannibal Sectors, is beset by threats from within and from without. Dream Entities materialise from anomalies in the fabric of reality and feed and draw upon the bleakest of thoughts and darkest of desires and so become the monsters that the citizens of Mort City’s Downtown fear the most. Mort City’s gangs offer family and even an element of hope to the city’s disenfranchised youth and as they have corporatized, they have created a niche for themselves in Mort City’s ecology. Manchines are the relics of past age, cyborgs created to quell mass riots, suborned by a dangerous intelligence who is a major threat to S.L.A. Industries. Serial Killers are pervasive in Downtown, driven to kill after a childhood of televised gore, junk food, and ingrained malaise, the most murderous of them in turn becoming stars in the televised gore being feed to the next generation. Ex-War Criminals are ex-military veterans unable to integrate back into society who go into hiding with their gear, either deep in Downtown or into the Cannibal Sectors where they really do not want to be disturbed. Unfortunately, S.L.A. Industries has other ideas. Carrien are the descendants of an alien race in S.L.A. Industries, devolved into bestial, ravaging creatures, most likely to be found in the Cannibal Sectors, as are the eponymous Cannibals. Scavs are the result of another scientific breakthrough, this time biogenetic, the gasmask-wearing armoured humanoids who having established outposts deep in Lower Downtown to study the inhabitants and how the city works. These are just some of the creatures, as well as their arms, armour, equipment, and motivation, detailed in Threat Analysis 1: Collateral, and this is not the only content in the supplement.

Threat Analysis 1: Collateral opens with a chapter on the ‘Dream Entities’. First introduced in the excellent supplement, Cannibal Sector One, these are the by-products of the breakdown in reality that initially take the form of negative energy, but which coalesces into a Dream Sac. This feeds on immediate vicinity’s history of violence, fear, and folklore. The Dream Sac gives birth to a still unreal creature that can evolve into something that not only embodies that history of violence, fear, and folklore, it reinforces it. However, there are numerous paths down which the entity in the Dream Sac can evolve, potentially going through multiple phases, from the initial Embryonic Phase, through the Juvenile Phase, Bloom Phase, and Consolidation Phase, and into the Integration Phase when the Dream Entity becomes organic and part of reality. Thankfully, these creatures are rare, but there are numerous other types of Dream Entities that SLA Operatives might encounter otherwise. These include the Titter which likes to present themselves as lost children, crying out for help, but ready to strike at whomever comes to their aid and then torture and murder with childlike glee; the Green Horror which rose up from the massacre of Shivers in Cannibal Sector One and almost organically replicates and warps the green Body Blocker armour that Shivers are renowned for wearing; and the Rainfolk, which whilst looking like ordinary Downtown citizens, unnerve those around them with unblinking eyes and unsettling mannerisms. Then there is the Dream Master, which leads and ensnares other Dream Entities, aiming to build a Dream Army. Lastly even their presence can have deleterious effect upon the environment, infecting Citizens with a deteriorating effect known as The Grey which appears to spread memetically and can lead to whole neighbourhoods being condemned if not dealt with.

In addition to detailing the various types of Dream Entity and their evolution, the chapter details the abilities they can have. These include Manifestation Abilities like ‘Cannibalistic Regeneration’ and ‘Dread Stench’ and Distortions, the main form of attack for Dream Entities, which affect the reality around their victims, like Mind Control and Time Distortion. There is Dream Hardware too, ranging from weapons such as the Dream Blade and Fear Staff to Dream-interpreted equipment such as the Oinky-Boinky and Oopsie Daisy, the former pig-like toy you do not want to possess and the latter a weaponised balloon from a children’s television series… There is no denying the weirdness of Dream Entities and it was a weirdness that seemed intrusive when they first appeared in Cannibal Sector One. Here though, they are better and more clearly explained, and given a wider range of options which will allow the Game Master to underplay that weirdness or go full blast with it.

The treatment of ‘Mort City Gangs’ is a contrast in the conventional after the Dream Entities. This talks about gang structure, gang values and activities, and roles within a gang along with their stats. This goes from Gang Boss at the top all the way down to Gang Prospects. Notably, gangs are organised, many having signed up to a Gang Charter that regulates their activities and those of their members, primarily as a means to make money, but do so without attracting the undue attention of S.L.A. Industries. Several gangs are described as well, including Krosstown Traffic, which is noted as one of Mort City’s oldest surviving gangs (having been referenced in numerous supplements for the roleplaying game), but not necessarily its largest. There is even a gang of Dream Entities, consisting of Titters, though they are not really a gang in the traditional sense. Instead of making money through robberies or protection rackets, its members are sent out to scavenge for ‘objects of interest’ for their Dream Master. The Gang Code is detailed, as are the weapons sold to them by soft companies and K’Shangs, the civilian powersuits that the gangs like to modify and use. Of course, the gangs are presented as a threat, but out of all the threats presented in Threat Analysis 1: Collateral, this one has the possibility to be basis of a S.L.A. Industries campaign, just from a different angle to that of SLA Ops.

However, the one threat that is presented as a Player Character option are the Manchines. Originally built to quell civil unrest, Digger took control of them and turned them against S.L.A. Industries. Now they form a network of lairs connected by a radio network, monitoring activities across the Cannibal Sectors and into Downtown. They are surprisingly docile, really only active when one is disturbed and attacked, and if destroyed, the others moving to fill the hole in the network. Manchines are scary because they wrap themselves in human flesh, but some do break connect with Digger and they resume their old programming. This opens up the possibility of a Player Character Manchine, even as an unsanctioned SLA Op, and there is a full list of modifications to customise both NPCs and possible Player Characters.

‘Serial Killers’ are given a similar treatment to the earlier Mort City Gangs. It categorises them and gives them stats as well as presenting ‘The Homicidal Pattern’, a list of common factors that seem to drive the creation of Serial Killers in Downtown. Cognates—Serial Killer collectives—are also discussed, along with examples, and so is the current status of Serial Killers in Mort City. Whilst they are often hunted by S.L.A. Industries, the soft company, Realtime Media broadcasts film of their activities, most notably on Channel Slice and Dice with its primetime Blood Soaked Hour which shows a Cognate facing another threat. This is supported by S.L.A. Industries to the point where a Serial Killer is allowed to get a ShowBiz Agent and when he has, he can legally travel to see his agent without the possibility of his being arrested.

Both ‘Scary Monsters’ and ‘Planet Mort Fauna’ details a wide of threats. In the former, this includes numerous types of Ex-War Criminals—War World Veterans currently lured into broadcast combat in Cannibal Sector Three by Realtime Media, the feral descendants of aliens known as Carrien, and numerous types of Cannibals, such as Cannibal Butcher, Cannibal Mastiff, and Cannibal Outcast. In the latter, the most normal creatures are the Carnivorous Pigs and Canines. Add to that Arrowhead Cockroach, which infests Downtown and the Cannibal Sectors and can change its carapace pattern and colour in response to threats, but it also can be turned into a cheesy past; Cannibals and other creatures transformed into Sector Mutants—KZ Mutants, KZ Dogs, and Skulkers—after drinking from heavily polluted pools in the Cannibal Sectors; and Gnaggots, maggot-like creatures capable of flight with a headache-inducing stench and mandibles that can bit through some armour, which can spend years dormant underground before bursting from the ground under the right climatic conditions in their thousands and swarming their targets. In between, ‘The Children of Scarogg’ present the descendants of biogenetic experimentation that S.L.A. Industries kept secret. Known as both Scavs and Vodyanoy, the former because they will attack and scavenge the arms and armour of anyone they attack. The gasmask wearing, towering figures have begun to infiltrate Downtown where they establish bases and outposts where they can begin to observe and experiment on the inhabitants. They have even begun taking over or establishing factories far from the eyes of S.L.A. Industries, where for the most part, they are safe from attack or interference.

The last chapter in Threat Analysis 1: Collateral returns to the subject of the first, ‘Dream Entities’, although from a different angle. ‘Naga 7 Division’ is both a new and a very ancient department within the hierarchy of S.L.A. Industries, dedicated to investigating and cataloguing the nature of reality of the World of Progress and beyond and assessing and dealing with the threats to it. This most obviously includes Dream Entities and Naga 7 Division trains agents who often work alongside SLA Ops to handle BPNs (S.L.A. Industries’ assignments) specific to its remit. As well as a detailed history of Naga 7 Division, which highlights its secretive and often duplicitous nature, the chapter gives three new options for the Player Character. These are Field Agents—Humans who have the ability to ‘Sense Artefact’ and locate the relics and legendary items from the past or beyond reality; Aethernauts—specialists who conduct the field work necessary to understand Dream Entities; and AetherTrackers—Advanced Carrien capable of tracking Dream Entities with ‘Dreamhound’. Operatives from Naga 7 Division are assigned Aether Armour suits, capable of withstanding the effects of the Gray and other esoteric threats, and weapons such as the Fracture Blade or Volt Gun, which are capable damaging Dream Entities. Operatives from Naga 7 Division are expected to undertake standard BPNs like any other SLA Op, but in game terms their role is very specific and the Game Master will want to decide whether she wants to include them and how much, just as she will with the Dream Entities from the start of the book. The obvious option is to run a campaign primarily focused around Naga 7 Division and the Dream Entities, which would explore and push at the nature of the reality of World of Progress and S.L.A. Industries as a setting.

Besides all of the threats and monsters described in the pages of Threat Analysis 1: Collateral, the supplement has another aspect which makes it all the more interesting. This is the amount of colour fiction which permeates the book with commentary on almost every aspect of the threats and other content found within its pages. This is both within the World of Progress and without the World of Progress, developing the secrets revealed and hinted at in S.L.A. Industries, Second Edition. Above all, the colour fiction brings flavour and in-game perspective to the setting.

Physically, Threat Analysis 1: Collateral is a clean, tidy looking book. It needs a slight edit in places, but the artwork is superb, brilliantly depicting the weird and worrisome threats in the supplement in almost too rich a detail, just as in other supplements for S.L.A. Industries.

Threat Analysis 1: Collateral is a supplement that every S.L.A. Industries Game Master is going to want and need. It is no mere collection of stats, but lives up to its title of ‘Threat Analysis’ by examining and assessing each danger to Mort City and the World of Progress in detail that will enable the Game Master to make each and every one interesting, even intriguing, and very likely monstrously repulsive, rather than simply something to just kill.

Quick-Start Saturday: SLA Industries

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—

What is it?

SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Quick Start is the quick-start for SLA Industries 2nd Edition, a roleplaying game of dark dystopian splatter punk and corporate noir horror.

It includes a basic explanation of the setting, rules for actions and combat, details of the arms, armour, and equipment fielded by the Player Characters, the mission, ‘The Cleaners’, and five ready-to-play, Player Characters, or SLA Operatives.

It is a fifty-two page, full colour book.

The quick-start is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is excellent. The rules are a slightly stripped down version from the core rulebook, but do include examples of the rules which speed the learning of the game.

The themes and nature of SLA Industries and thus the SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Quick Start means that it is best suited to a mature audience.

How long will it take to play?
SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Quick Start and its adventure, ‘The Cleaners’, is designed to be played through in one or two sessions.

What else do you need to play?
SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Quick Start requires six ten-sided dice per player. One of these dice should be a different colour to the rest.

Who do you play?
The five Player Characters are all SLA Operatives who recently graduated from training and formed a squad called ‘Blistering Rain’. They consist of a Malice Stormer 313 with the Close Assault package, an Ebonite Medic, a Neophron with the Investigation & Interrogation package, a Frother with the Heavy Support package, and a Human with the Strike & Sweep package.

How is a Player Character defined?
An Operative has six stats—Strength, Dexterity, Knowledge, Concentration, and Cool. The sixth is Luck, except for the Ebonite, who have the Flux stat instead. Stats are rated between zero and six, whilst the skills are rated between one and four. Ratings Points represent an Operative’s ratings in various areas, such as televised action, corporate sponsorship, or faith in his own abilities. They are expended to overcome obstacles, perform cinematic feats, or avoid certain death or defeat. They are divided between three categories—Body, Brains, and Bravado—and indicate the ways in which an Operative will perform best on camera. For example, with Body 5, Brains 0, and Bravado 2, the Malice Stormer 313 will best seen performing an ‘Impossible Feat’ or going to ‘Tear Right Through Them’.

An Operative also has various traits such as Anger, Ambidextrous, Drug Addict, Arrogant, and so on. Each Operative sheet includes a thumbnail headshot illustration, some background, and several weapons. Each ‘SLA Operative Security Clearance Card’ or character sheet is clear and easy to read and understand.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, SLA Industries, Second Edition uses the ‘S5S’ System. This is a dice pool system which uses ten-sided dice. The dice pool consists of one ten-sided die, called the Success Die, and Skill Dice equal to the skill being used, plus one. The Success Die should be of a different colour from the Skill Dice. The results of the dice roll are not added, but counted separately. Thus, to each roll is added the value of the Skill being rolled, plus its associated stat. If the result on the Success Die is equal to or greater than the Target Number, ranging from seven and Challenging to sixteen and Insane, then the Operative has succeeded. If the results of the Skill Dice also equal or exceed the Target Number, this improves the quality of the successful skill attempt. However, if the roll on the Success Die does not equal or exceed the Target Number, the attempt fails, even if multiple rolls on the Success Dice do. Except that is where there are four or more results which equal or exceed the Target Number on the Success Dice. This is counted as a minimum success though.

How does combat work?
Combat in SLA Industries is designed to be desperate and dangerous. It is detailed and tactical. It takes into account offensive and defensive manoeuvres, rate of fire, recoil, damage inflicted on armour, cover, aiming, and so on. The scenario features a lot of combat and the Game Master should pay particular attention to those rules in the quick-start.

All SLA Operatives are combat trained, though some do specialise. The Frother is also addicted to a combat drug which gives him an advantage in combat.

How does the Ebb work?
One of the pre-generated SLA Operatives is an Ebonite and can calculate the formulae underlying the Ebb disciplines. In play, each discipline is treated as a separate skill, requires the expenditure of Fluxx points, and can be used in and out of combat. The Ebonite has the Heal, Thermal: Blue, and Communicate disciplines. Thus she is capable of conversing by thought, healing wounds, resisting heat, manipulating the cold, and forming temporary blades of ice.

What do you play?
The SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Quick Start includes ‘The Cleaners’, a short BPN or Blue Print News file assignment which starts out in intentionally frustrating and dreary fashion with the SLA Operatives waiting around to receive and assignment, before being transported by a squad of Shivers—local law enforcement and occasional riot squad—to the site where strange sounds coming from the sewers are heard. No one is really pleased to see the Operatives, but they are least pleased that someone will deal with the problem. There are some nice opportunities for roleplaying here before the SLA Operatives climb down into sewers.

The BPN involves a sewer sweep and clear of rats and other vermin, such as carrien and carnivorous pig. As the Operatives work their way through the sewers they will find clues suggesting that something else is going on.

Is there anything missing?
The SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Quick Start is complete and it even comes with a pair of extra BPN files which the Game Master could develop and run if her players want to discover what happens next to the members of Blistering Rain. If there is anything missing which would made the scenario easier to run, it would be a map of the sewers, but this is not absolutely necessary. The Game Master may want to assign some names to the antagonists of the scenario as it is something that the players and their Operatives will ask about.

Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in the SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Quick Start are relatively easy to prepare. The Game Master will need to pay closer attention to how combat works in the game as it is the most complex part of the rules and highly tactical in play. There is decent advice for the Game Master on how to run the scenario.

Is it worth it?
Yes. Although the SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Quick Start does not touch upon the weirdness and true horror that is part of the World of Progress, it presents a solid introduction to the ‘S5S’ System and the rules for SLA Industries 2nd Edition, as well as to the World of Progress and how it works for Operatives at the bottom of the ladder, being assigned a rotten job and not getting the full recognition for it. This means that it will work as a one-shot as a taster or convention scenario, but can also be added to or used to start a campaign. The scenario has an atmospheric tension from paranoia and the lack of trust that those around have for the SLA Operatives, which will ultimately end in a crescendo of violence down the sewers...

Where can you get it?
The SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Quick Start is available to download here.

Operative Orientation

Today you graduated from Meny. Today you graduated as a SLA Operative. A SLA Op. A Slop. Tomorrow you and your squad will take your first job, your first BPN or Blue Print News file, given to you by a BPN Officer at your nearest BPN Hall. You’re pretty sure it’ll be in Downtown, literally down town in the great metropolis of Mort City. It could be a Blue, and you could be exterminating a nest of rats or sewer pigs, doing a gang sweep, or breaking up some upstart soft company. It could be a White and you’ll find yourself monitoring strange activity in a neighbourhood or investigating a murder or even the activities of one of those serial killers that plague the reaches of Downtown. Or it could be Green and you’ll find yourself assigned to one of the bridgeheads out in Cannibal Sector 1, alongside the Shivers who enforce the law in Downtown, or even off planet, though being a greenhorn, that seems unlikely. Perhaps it will be Red, an emergency like a riot or a terrorist attack by DarkNight or Thresher and then you’ll get TV coverage and your chance to look good on camera, catch the eye of sponsor? Maybe. You got your BOSH SLA Blade. You got your FEN 603 Auto-Pistol. You got your ITB Mutilator Fist. You got your PP664.2 Body Blocker armour. It ain’t much, but it’s a start. You got your SLA Ops badge and Security Clearance 10. You paid your Bullet Tax. You’re ready. You’re an Operative for SLA Industries.

However, there are greater dangers which threaten Mort City, home to SLA Industries, the planet of Mort, and The World of Progress which encompasses the whole of the universe and the company’s industrial worlds, home worlds, resource worlds, labour worlds, war worlds, and more. The Grosh, the Krell, and the Momic—previously forgotten and thought lost Conflict Races from the dawn of SLA Industries’ founding, nine centuries ago—have returned from Conflict Space and begun to war against The World of Progress. SLA Industries faces a ‘Great Enemy’, said to be imprisoned on a world known as ‘White Earth’ from where twisted and bitter secret knowledge has leaked. Some of this was learned by an amateur scholar deep in Lower Downtown, the knowledge driving him to first make blood sacrifices to White Earth, and then found the Shi’An Cult dedicated to White Earth. In the decade since its founding, the Shi’An Cult is Downtown’s largest growing religion, its members dedicated to summoning horrifying monsters from White Earth, and whilst probably killing themselves in the process, sowing fear and terror amongst the downtrodden citizens of Mort. However some threats come within. In a company as large as SLA Industries, it is easy to hide corruption; the newly formed Moral Right Division sends out patrols to educate civilians on the virtues of morality, dignity, and civility, but mostly consist of bully boys out to have a good time and repress the populace; and then there is Mr. Slayer, the head of SLA Industries, an undeniably evil megacorporation and government. He has his own secrets. Who he is. Where he is from. What he knows and what he has done to ensure the growth and survival of his company. These secrets and knowing the Truth about The World of Progress? That is the ultimate danger as The World of Progress stands on the precipice of the World of Change.

This is the set-up for SLA Industries, a roleplaying game originally published in 1993 by Nightfall Games. Since its initial release, it has suffered a somewhat peripatetic existence, finding home with publisher after publisher, but receiving only relatively light attention from each. However, the roleplaying game finally got the attention it deserved in 2016 with the release of the excellent SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1, followed by SLA Industries, Second Edition after a successful Kickstarter campaign. With the publication of the second edition, SLA Industries has been given a major overhaul. This includes an entirely new set of mechanics, the ‘S5S’ System; an updating of the setting from its original year of 901sd to 915sd; and a makeover. Like Cannibal Sector 1 before it, SLA Industries, Second Edition is generously illustrated with gloriously gorgeous and gory artwork. The artwork in the first edition was good, but here, in rich, full colour, we get to see The World of Progress and its splatterpunk, noir horror dystopia like never before.

In SLA Industries, players take the roles of Operatives for the company. A Player Character in SLA Industries, Second Edition is defined by his Species, stats, Ratings Points, skills, and traits. SLA Industries, Second Edition has nine Species. Three are Human-like. These are Humans; Frothers, drug-fuelled and drug-tolerant who go berserk and fight with a power claymore; and Ebonites, who use the mystic power of the Ebb to alter the fabric of reality. They are divided between Ebon and Eban, who embody the positive and negative versions of the Ebb. SLA Industries also bioengineer SLA Operatives, the Stormer 313 ‘Malice’ and the Stormer 711 ‘Xeno’, designed for their speed, ferocity, and their presence in combat and thus on camera. Shaktar and Wraithen, are aliens, Shaktar being honourable warriors with fleshy dreadlocks and a prehensile tail, and Wraithen, feline and reptilian hunters known for their acute senses and response times. Advanced Carrien and Neophron are new additions to SLA Industries and thus as Operatives. Advanced Carrien or ADV Carrien are Carrien Pigs which have survived their litter and raised by SLA Industries to work as SLA Operatives because they are highly adapted to life on the polluted World of Progress. The Neophron are bird-like aliens, known for their grace, charm, and inquisitiveness, who prefer methods other than violence.

An Operative has six stats—Strength, Dexterity, Knowledge, Concentration, and Cool. The sixth is Luck, except for the Ebonite, who have the Flux stat instead. Stats are rated between zero and six, whilst the skills are rated between one and four. Ratings Points represent an Operative’s ratings in various areas, such as televised action, corporate sponsorship, or faith in his own abilities. They are expended to overcome obstacles, perform cinematic feats, or avoid certain death or defeat. They are divided between three categories—Body, Brains, and Bravado. To create an Operative, a player selects a Species, assigns twelve points to his stats, thirty points to skills, chooses traits—positive and negative, and purchases equipment beyond the standard assigned to all Operatives. Skill points also come from the Operative’s Species and choice of Training Package, which include Strike & Sweep, Close Assault, Heavy Support, Scout, Medic, Investigation & Interrogation, Technical, and Bureaucrat.

Tanktop – Stormer 313 ‘Malice’
Close Assault Operative, SCL 10
Strength 6 Dexterity 5 Knowledge 1 Concentration 1 Charisma 1 Cool 3 Luck 2
Hit Points: 28
Rating Points
Body 4 Brains 0 Bravado 2
Initiative Bonus: 6
Species Abilities: Regeneration (2), Physical Favourite
Traits: – 
Skills
Strength – Climbing 2, Melee Weapons 3, Throw 1, Unarmed Combat (Brawling) 3
Dexterity – Acrobatics 2, Athletics 2, Pistol 1, Rifle 2, Stealth 2
Knowledge –
Concentration – Detect 1
Charisma –
Cool – Intimidate 3, Survival 1
Luck –
Money: 100c, 100u
Equipment – Boopa CASDIS, Finance Chip, Headset Communicator, Klippo Lighter, Operative organiser & admin kit, Pack of Contraceptives, SLA Industries ID Card, SLL Badge, Two Sets of Cloths and Boots
Armour – PP664.2 Body Blocker armour
Weapons – Stormer Chucklerduster (2), FEN 603 Auto-Pistol (4 clips), SLA Blade, SLA 10-05 Bully Boy Shotgun (4 clips)

Mechanically, SLA Industries, Second Edition uses the ‘S5S’ System. This is a dice pool system which uses ten-sided dice. The dice pool consists of one ten-sided die, called the Success Die, and Skill Dice equal to the skill being used, plus one. The Success Die should be of a different colour from the Skill Dice. For example, if Tanktop needed to make a Stealth check, his player rolls a total of four dice—the Success Die plus two Skill Dice for Tanktop’s Stealth skill of two, plus one. The results of the dice roll are not added, but counted separately. Thus to each roll is added the value of the Skill being rolled, plus its associated stat. If the result on the Success Die is equal to or greater than the Target Number, ranging from seven and Challenging to sixteen and Insane, then the Operative has succeeded. If the results of the Skill Dice also equal or exceed the Target Number, this improves the quality of the successful skill attempt. However, if the roll on the Success Die does not equal or exceed the Target Number, the attempt fails, even if multiple rolls on the Success Dice do. Except that is where there are four or more results which equal or exceed the Target Number on the Success Dice. This is counted as a minimum success though.

Luck can also be spent to reroll dice. This is either a point to reroll the Success Die or any of the Skill Dice, but can also spend them on a one for one basis to improve the result of the Success Die.

For example, Tanktop has captured Angus Ablanko, a suspected Dark Night sympathiser. He has clammed up and refuses to talk. Tanktop looks him over, gives him the once over and promises to drag him down the street and into every single fight by rope with his hands tied… “Think of it like a fight on the telly, but really, really close up.” And then he grins. Tanktop has Intimidate of three, so his player rolls the Success Die and three Skill Dice plus one, for a total of five. He will be adding a total of six—three each for the Intimidate skill and the Cool stat—to each of the dice. The Game Master has set the Target Number at Complex or ten, because Angus is showing a bit of bravado. However, Tanktop’s player rolls five on the Success Die, and then five, six, eight, and ten on the Skill Dice. This an unbelievable success, and Angus literally collapses blubbing and begging the Stormer not to drag him into any fights. Between sobs, he tells Tanktop’s squad—because he cannot even bring himself to look at the Stormer—who his contact is, where he hangs out, where he lives, and what he thinks he is planning.

Combat uses the same ‘S5S’ System and is in the main relatively simple and straightforward. It can, however, be nasty, brutal, and short. The standard Target Number for combat is ten or Complex and if the attack roll is successful, that is the result of the Success Die is sufficient, any successful results on the Skill Dice either add extra damage or a specific body area being hit. If an Operative’s player rolls four or more successful Skill Dice, the Operative both inflicts extra damage and hits the target’s head. If an Operative’s or target’s Hit Points are reduced to zero, they are dead. They are at critical condition if they have six or less Hit Points left and suffer a wound if they suffer damage which reduces their Hit Points by half.

Against incoming damage or attacks, an Operative has three options—defensive manoeuvres, cover, and armour. In melee, an Operative can assign one or more levels of his skill to defence to reduce his attacker’s roll or actively and solely dodge using Acrobatic Defence to do the same. Similarly, cover makes the target harder to hit, whilst armour reduces damage taken, but at the same time, can damage the armour itself. Different ammunition types inflict different amounts of damage, but SLA Industries impose a Bullet Tax on all ammunition. This is simply because close combat looks better on television and garners higher ratings.

Operatives can look good on camera through the use of Ratings Points, which lend themselves to a cinematic style of play. Ratings Points fall into three categories—Body, Brain, and Bravado, as do their associated Feats. For example, ‘How Did You Hit That?’ and ‘Tear Right Through Them’ are Body Feats, ‘I Just read About That Yesterday!’ and ‘Lucky Guess’ are Brain Feats, and ‘Charming Smile’ and ‘Pure Grit’ are Bravado Feats. They either cost one or two Ratings Points and add a bit more colour and dynamism to what an Operative can do.

Ebonites—and some threats faced by SLA Industries—have access to the mystic power of the Ebb to alter the fabric of reality. Not quite spells, not quite psionics, the study of the Ebb is divided between ten disciplines, ranging from Awareness, Blast, and Communicate to Senses, Telekinesis, and Thermal (Blue/Red). Like skills, each discipline has four ranks, but each rank grants access to a pair of abilities. For example, at Rank 2, the discipline Reality Fold grants ‘Jump Port 2’ and ‘Shared Port’, the ability itself being akin to teleportation. Points of Flux have to be expended to use disciplines, an Ebonite calculating the formulae for each discipline via their Deathsuits, which takes concentration.

The mediatisation of violence within The World of Progress is in part represented by a lengthy list of arms and armour, and other equipment. All of which is very nicely illustrated. This adds to elements of game play as not only do the stats of a weapon or suit of armour matter, but so does their name and look. After all, they are designed to look good on television and if an Operative can get good coverage on camera, then he might gain sponsorship from a manufacturer. The equipment list also includes a lengthy list of combat drugs, one reason the roleplaying game carries a mature warning.

Rounding out SLA Industries, Second Edition is ‘Threat Analysis’ and ‘Web of Lies’. The former presents a wide range of dangers that the Operative might face on the streets of Mort and beyond. These threats range from Carnivorous Pigs, Carrien, and things that seep in from White Earth to rival soft companies such as Dark Knight, Thresher, and Tek Trex, Dream Entities, serial killers, and the freelancer mercenaries and vigilantes known as Props. These are all decently detailed and superbly illustrated.

‘Web of Lies’ is a chapter of advice for the Game Master. It is ultimately where the problems with SLA Industries, Second Edition come to a head. What it covers is advice on running the game, in particular, the Blueprint News file types, what they entail, their importance, and what the rewards they pay out to the Operatives. Added to this are Hunter Sheets, essentially bounties on particular targets or persons of interest, which are suggested as being suitable for single sessions or one-shots. The advice also covers handling the game’s mechanics, sponsorship deals for the Operatives, what they might do on their downtime, and more.

The issue with ‘Web of Lies’ is that it suggests something more than it covers, and that feeling pervades SLA Industries, Second Edition throughout. The focus in the roleplaying game is on beginning Player Characters and Operatives, and their taking on Blueprint News file mission after Blueprint News file mission, in order to increase their Security Clearance, climb the corporate ladder, gain sponsorship, and fame and fortune. It does a very good job of explaining what an Operative does in SLA Industries, Second Edition and The World of Progress. From the outset, a player and his Operative knows what he is expected to do… and yet. SLA Industries is roleplaying game and a setting which has secrets—deep secrets. These are hidden behind layers of bureaucracy and conspiracy within The World of Progress, and ultimately, playing the roleplaying game is about discovering or being exposed to them and the consequences of that happening. Yet despite the colour fiction in the pages of SLA Industries, Second Edition hinting at those secrets and conspiracies, none of them are actually explored in its pages or supported with advice on how to include them in play. Which is exactly what a chapter entitled ‘Web of Lies’ suggests it might do, but does not. For the player who has been a fan of SLA Industries since original publication, this is very much less of an issue, but for anyone new to the roleplaying game and its rich setting, they are going to be left mystified as to what the significance of the colour fiction is and likely wondering quite what SLA Industries is ultimately about. This is despite the fact that SLA Industries, Second Edition goes out of the way in places to make itself and The World of Progress accessible, especially with the guide to Operative life which clearly explains what an Operative does on a daily basis.

SLA Industries is a roleplaying game from the nineteen nineties and ultimately, it does something that is so typically nineteen nineties. It hides its meta-plot. Or rather, its backstory. As typified by the superhero roleplaying game, Brave New World, it keeps what is really going hidden from both players and Game Master, even though Brave New World revealed some of its secrets, SLA Industries, Second Edition does not even do that. However, this does not mean that as written, SLA Industries, Second Edition is unplayable, as it still provides the means to explore a very dark corporate dystopia. Perhaps though, a scenario or two would have helped.

Physically, SLA Industries, Second Edition is superbly presented. The layout is clean and tidy, and though it needs a slight edit in places, it is engagingly written with lots of colour fiction. The artwork though, is amazing, and really does a fantastic job of bringing The World of Progress and its rain sodden, polluted, and horror haunted streets (and beyond) to life like never before.

SLA Industries, Second Edition is a great update to the original nineties darkest of dark dystopian roleplaying games. The designers have revisited the setting of The World of Progress and clearly worked hard to update it, to make it more accessible, and represent it in gloriously gorgeous colour. For the most part, they have succeeded, yet so much of The World of Progress is only hinted at and left inaccessible and that can only hamper the Game Master in the long run.

The true nature and secrets of The World of Progress will have to wait for revelations in future supplements, but as an exploration of what Mr Slayer wants you to know, SLA Industries, Second Edition is the ultimate in dark dystopian splatter punk and corporate horror roleplaying. 

—oOo—

Nightfall Games is at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, June 3rd to Sunday, June 5th, 2022.

[Fanzine Focus XIX] Time & Tide

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 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. 

Another fanzine, another different fanzine. Time & Tide is a fanzine dedicated, to SLA Industries, the 1993 Scottish roleplaying game set in a far future dystopia of corporate greed, commodification of ultraviolence, the mediatisation of murder, conspiracy, and urban horror, and serial killer sensationalism, recently expanded with the supplement, SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1. Published by Tanya Floaker following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of the first Zine Quest, Time & Tide is subtitled ‘A fanzine examining why people love SLA Industries and the World of Progress’. It is of course not the only fanzine for SLA Industries. In the early noughties, tTH bIG pICTURE showcased another role for the fanzine, that is serving as a focal point for a roleplaying game’s fandom and support, often when that roleplaying game is between editions or out of print. As was the case with SLA Industries.

Time & Tide comes as thick sheaf of paper, a wodge of white text blocks on all dark photo backgrounds and scrappy art which screams late eighties, early nineties do-it-yourself layout. It is all filler, no game, but nevertheless all love, no hate. As the subtitle says, this is a fanzine about the love that the fans have for SLA Industries. At a hundred pages in length there are actually very few articles in the fanzine—just eight in all. There is also quite a bit of white—and more often than not—black space. The fanzine includes fiction, interviews, cake recipes, and more.

Time & Tide opens with ‘So Dark it’s U.V.’, a discussion of just why SLA Industries continues to be popular in spite of its sporadic publishing history. It also looks at the elements and themes of the game—of constantly changing technology, of suppression of knowledge, and of a truth that has its own dangers in knowing, overlaid by a Splatterpunk sensibility that reinforces the notion that life is cheap, that death can be comical, and that thrills meaning ratings (until the next thrill gets better ratings). It is a solid opening piece which lays the groundwork for the rest of the fanzine.

The highpoint of the fanzine is the ‘Interview with Nightfall Games’. The first of two interviews in the Time & Tide, this is with Jared Earle, co-author of SLA Industries and Mark Rapson of Word Forge Games, the new publisher of the roleplaying game. Conducted before the publication of SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1, this is a lengthy piece which looks at the history of the game and its future, in particular, its evolution as a war game setting in addition to being a roleplaying game. This is an informative and entertaining piece which really explains both Nightfall Games and Word Forge Games in the run up to the publication of SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1 and SLA Industries, Second Edition. The other interview is ‘Real Time’. This is with Ste Winwood about his involvement in running SLA Industries fan groups. Again, this is another personable interview highlighting the effectiveness of the fans in keeping a game alive with their support.

Between the two interviews is a much longer article, ‘The Mall of Progress’ by Ed Hill. This supports the new wargaming aspect of SLA Industries as the author takes the reader through the evolution of the terrain that he used to fight confrontations between the various factions in the World of Progress. So it goes from Cannibal Sector One over the Wall into Downtown and onto Garbage Alley and out again into the Ruined Mall and the Mall of Progress, and then back in again to a wretched housing block called Grim House. The step-by-step process looks at construction methods and the changing technology used and is accompanied by innumerable photographs. Unfortunately, these photographs hamper the article at every turn, being too dark and too murky to discern any detail. Whilst murk fits the World of Progress, it is not what you want in a wargames article where photos should bring to life what the designer has been doing. Worse, the layout of the article means extends the article over and over, and at a quarter of the fanzine’s page count combined with the poor resolution of the photographs, it just feels bloated and boring.

Tamsyn Kennedy’s ‘Underneath It All’ is the first of two pieces of fiction in Time & Tide. It tells of an Ebon’s almost worker drone existence before an encounter forces her awake and brings her to the notice of those that make her take the next step in ‘evolution’. This balances the humdrum with the eventual realisation that there is an alternative path in the ‘World of Progress’ to climbing the corporate ladder. The other piece of fiction is ‘Your Hole/Their Hole/My Hole’ by Roger Duthie which is very much the opposite of ‘Underneath It All’, telling of the wet, dank, stagnant, often horrifying nature of living on the dole in Downtown. It is quite a creepy piece, capturing life in the Mort City equivalent of a 1980s Glasgow council flat—elements of SLA Industries being a reaction to growing up and being unemployed in Thatcher’s Britain—from multiple points of view, intruders mundane and monstrous, as well as the dwelling’s occupants.

Quite literally filler, Coz Winwood’s ‘Cake Sector One’ gives recipes for SLA-themed baked goods. Three recipes are given—in oddly American measurements given the roleplaying game’s Scottish origins—and their inclusion would have been fine if they had there to offset something more substantial in terms of content in the fanzine. As it is, ‘Cake Sector One’ is all too light and fluffy in all too light and fluffy issue. Nice wordplay on the title though and there really ought to be a cooking show aimed at Shivers on duty in Cannibal Sector One within the game itself. Lastly, ‘The Bigger Picture’ is a more personal piece about SLA Industries played a role in his life and helped him when times were difficult. Hopefully the new edition of the roleplaying game and the chance to play again will make his better.

Physically, Time &  Tide is scrappy and scruffy as mentioned earlier. It certainly echoes the style of fanzines from their heyday in the eighties. Overall, it is difficult to come right out and recommend Time & Tide. It is just too light and fluffy in its content—even if that content is dark and oppressive in tone, but then what would expect, it is for SLA Industries after all—to be anything more.Time & Tide will of course appeal to devotees of SLA Industries, but it is nothing more than a diverting read as it does not include any support for the roleplaying game or the war game rules. Had it done so, then there might have been reason enough for the reader to look at it more than just the once. Time & Tide is very much not essential to playing SLA Industries and so nice enough to have if a fan, but you will not miss it from your gaming shelves if you don’t have it.