[Fanzine Focus XXXIII] Mutant High School

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. Another popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, such as Crawl! and Crawling Under a Broken Moon. One aspect of Crawling Under a Broken Moon is that it is designed to be played using the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and not the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, despite it presenting a post-apocalyptic setting. Not so Mutant High School.

Mutant High School is a fanzine inspired by The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke ’Em High, Weird Science, et al—and although it does not list it, at least tonally, the roleplaying game, Teenagers from Outerspace, published by R. Talsorian Games, Inc. Published by Goodman Games, Mutant High School is set in No-Go City, some time in the near future. Formerly the city of Fresno, California, the radioactive waste capital of North America, an earthquake burst the underground storage tank for the waste, causing a geyser to erupt and shower the inhabitants in mutagenic goo that not only mutated every single one of them, but also made them sufficiently toxic themselves that any encounter with them who is not already mutated, has a chance of mutating them. So, the authorities swept in, locked down the city, built a wall around it, and with the enactment of the ‘Maximum Extreme Disproportionate Response to Emergent Mutations Act’—also known as the ‘MEDeR’M’ act—strictly controlled access to the city, with guards in hazmat suits on the walls and the ever-present buzzing of surveillance drones. Both internet access and mobile connection have been severely curtailed. Since Ooze Day, the former Fresno has been dubbed No-Go City or the Mutant Quarter.

As a consequence, the inhabitants of No-Go City have to get by on limited resources and information access. Which includes its students at Bullroar High School. For example, with no other high school to compete against, Coach Phelan, a Plantient strain of the coffee plant, has set up rival teams. Elsewhere, the inhabitants of No-Go City have been forced to recycle over and over, including turning vehicles into rough and ready jalopies (or rickety rides), cloths and so on, whilst there is a thriving black market—if the smugglers can get it past the guards and the roly-polys (or robo-police, who only have an occasional chance of identifying No-Go City inhabitants as actually being human!)—for almost everything else. Alternatively, the inhabitants have access to their own homegrown drugs, including ‘27/7 Dust’, a potent stimulant, and ‘Telepathashish’, a telepathic weed that is sentient and encourages everyone nearby to say, “Just say yes”.

In terms of characters, a player takes the role of either a Mutant, Manimal, or Plantient, but not Pure Strain Human, who is a high school student. Otherwise, Player Characters are normal, First Level rather than Zero Level, and instead of rolling for Background, a player rolls for Archetype, such as Band Geek, Goth, or Punk. This provides some equipment and a special ability. For example, the Motorhead starts play with a rickety ride, a piecemeal toolkit, and +1d on all attempts to repair automobile and small engines. Besides their mutations, each Player Character is also ‘Best in Town’ at something, making them stand out, whether that is a specific form of attack, using a mutation, a skill check, and so on, and possesses a ‘Cool Mutation’, a mutation that makes them physically stand out even more, but which does not provide any other detail.

Since the inhabitants of No-Go City have the misfortune to live there, they are prone to bad luck. Instead of Fleeting Luck as per Mutant Crawl Classics, the inhabitants and thus the Player Characters have ‘Oozing Luck’. Gained for rolls of natural twenty and good play and lost for rolls of natural one, Luck in No-Go City tends to either stick around or ooze away. It can actually go below zero and impose a penalty to the Player Character’s Luck attribute. The use of Oozing Luck is tied into the ‘Mute-Guffin’, which is badly named because it is not a silent ‘guffin’, but rather an NPC with an agenda that is connected to the one of the Judge’s storylines. A Player Character can earn a point of Oozing Luck for successfully identifying the ‘Mute-Guffin’ and for successfully supporting the ‘Mute-Guffin’, but lose a point if the ‘Mute-Guffin’ is identified incorrectly. There is an option suggested for the opposite of a ‘Mute-Guffin’, the ‘Anti-Mute-Guffin’.

Running to just sixteen pages, there is still a lot of background in Mutant High School, covering studying and exams, find equipment, the wall surrounding the city, and various factions in and outside the city. Inside the city, ‘The Church of the Burbling Redeemer’, a law-abiding new cult lead by the mutant fusion of five interfaith council members who preach the beneficence of mutating slime and want to spread its effects beyond the wall; the sheriff and his Robo-Polys in near constant conflict with the criminal motorcycle gang, the Ultras; and the ‘Toxic Truthers’, outsiders who refuse to believe in Ooze Day and its effects, and resent not being able to walk about the twenty-five square miles blocked off by the wall as every true patriot should be allowed to do. Some even believe that the toxicity of No-Go City will cure all manner of ailments, which is why big pharma is denying them access!

Rounding out Mutant City High is a set of descriptions of various events that happen in No-Go City and an adventure hook, ‘Prom Night’. There is just about enough here to help a Judge get a mini-campaign started.

Physically, Mutant City High is decently produced, as you would expect for a release from Goodman games. It is lightly illustrated, but everything else is well explained, although the background does come after the rules for character creation, so that does read oddly, at least initially. A map of No-Go City would have been useful.

Mutant High School offers an alternative to the post-apocalyptic future of Terra A.D. of Mutant Crawl Classics. On one level it reads an alternative roleplaying setting of the nineteen eighties, but there is contemporary strand to it that effectively makes Mutant High School a Lockdown-era roleplaying setting, although one seen through a weird and wacky lens. Mutant High School packs a lot into its scant few pages, its combination of the weird and the familiar making it easy to develop further content for by the Judge, but really Mutant High School deserves more than just the one issue of the fanzine and even its own supplement.

A Cryptid Collection

The DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS Cryptid Manual is a cryptozoological bestiary for the Dark Places & Demogorgons, the roleplaying game of being students at high school in the nineteen eighties in a small town by mysterious attacks and disappearances. With the adults at a loss as to what to do and the local police department possessing no idea, let alone the local preacher whipping up another moral panic, it is invariably down to the teenagers to find out what is going on, where the victims have disappeared to, and who or what is responsible. With the DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS Cryptid Manual, the who or what responsible is drawn from the pseudoscience of cryptozoology. Creatures like Bigfoot, The Mothman, The Jersey Devil, The Pope Lick Monster, Chupacabra, Gremlins, and Lake Monsters, and more. Initially, this gives the DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS Cryptid Manual a distinctly North American focus with Cryptids native to Canada, Mexico, and the USA, but there are numerous creatures included too from around the world. On the plus side, this means that the players and their students are going to be challenged by something they will probably never have heard of and not know how to deal with, but on the downside, the Game Master will need to be creative in how she brings such creatures into the campaign.

The DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS Cryptid Manual is published by Bloat Games, and is supposedly a secret printing of a file taken from an evidence locker at Quantico. These are the Hope Excerpts, the collected notes and reports of an explorer, Joel Harrison Hope, who long searched for an ancient artefact known as the Staff of Bel, which had been used Sumerian priests to defeat monsters. Over time, heroes and priests from across the ancient world used the staff before it ended up in Rome and was broken and its pieces scattered during by a barbarian invasion. Fortunately, Hope was able to locate the staff and find notes and details of other ‘monsters’ and other artefacts. However, the Staff of Bel is not detailed in the supplement and Hope’s notes play little further role either, and for as potentially as an interesting set-up as that is, it is disappointing not to see this followed through.

The DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS Cryptid Manual contains some fifty or so different monsters that come from North America, Mexico, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. They include seven types of the Bigfoot, with the Almasti being the Russian equivalent to the North American beast and the Yeren the Chinese, whilst the Grassman Bigfoot is the Ohio version, the Skunk Ape, the swamp dwelling from the South, the Yowie the Australian version, and the Sasquatch, the most well-known version from the Pacific Northwest, and the Yeti, the Asian version. The often-connected Wendigo is alongside as a spirit monster, whilst the Sheepsquatch is a newcomer to the fold, essentially a seven-foot tall ruminant known for its aggressive love of meth and other drugs, and rumoured to have been seen fighting the Mothman, which deserves a all of its very own. Similarly, there are five versions of the Extra-terrestrial, including ranging from the little-known Flatwoods Monster to the Greys and Little Green Men via the Nordic and Reptilian types. A campaign could easily mix these up for the students to get involved in the secret war between the Nordic and the Grey and the Reptilian Extra-terrestrials.

From Mexico and the America Southwest, there is the Chupacabra, and from the legends of the North Americans natives come the Mishipeshu and the Thunderbird. The African creatures include the Grootslang, a giant snake with the head of an elephant known to be wise and crafty, which resides in deep caverns, whilst the Mokele-Mbembe is a giant dinosaur occasionally spotted in the deepest jungles. The Bunyip is the only Australian entry. From Europe, the DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS Cryptid Manual includes the Dobhar-Chu—the Irish Otter King—which protect rivers and streams from pollution and overuse, and are considered lucky to see, and the Kelpie from Scottish myth, as well as a more generic fairy. The Shuck comes from English folklore and is a good stand in for any black dog, whilst Greek myth is the source of both Cerberus and Medusa. There are silly creatures too, such as the Crocoduck, which has the body of a duck and the head of a crocodile, and a penchant for bananas. Thankfully they are duck-sized, but do hunt in packs.

Each entry in the DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS Cryptid Manual is a given a one or two-page spread, with clear and easy to read stats and explanations of its powers. It is also accompanied by a heavy, black and white illustration, some of which are quite creepy, such as the Black-eyed Children and the Reptilian Extra-terrestrial, the latter a nice nod to the V television series. Notably, quite a lot of effort has gone into making the various types of Extra-terrestrial different from each other, though this is not necessarily the case with the Sasquatch. In places the descriptions of the creatures do feel underwritten, consisting of descriptions of their habits and physiologies, but the accompanying eyewitness statements, like that of the county dog catcher who thought a Psi-Rat might have been a dog or the drug addict and meth manufacturer who threatened the Sheepsquatch with the double-barreled shotgun add some decent flavour and detail.

Rounding out the DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS Cryptid Manual is set of templates which can be applied to any of the entries in the book. These include Dire, rabid, radioactive, vampiric, and zombie, plus options to enhance or weaken them. Along with the rules for morale, and explanations of both game terms and updated game terms, there is a lot of flexibility built into the supplement, allowing the Game Master to modify and adjust the various cryptids with little difficulty.

If there is a downside to the DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS Cryptid Manual, it is that its various monsters and creatures could have benefited from more background and detailing of their origins, as otherwise, it leaves the Game Master with a fair bit of research and investigation to do of her own. Nevertheless, there are nice little details of each to be found, especially in each entry’s flavour text. The DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS Cryptid Manual pleasingly brings the strange and the weird and the modern into the small-town life of DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS, as well as the Old School Renaissance itself, with a varied and interesting collection of cryptozoological critters.

Extracurricular Esoteric Endeavours III

The publisher 12 to Midnight has developed its horror setting of Pinebox, Texas through a series of single scenarios written for use with Savage Worlds, the cinematic action RPG rules from Pinnacle Entertainment Group. In July, 2014, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the publisher released the setting through a particular lens and timeframe, that is as students at East Texas University. Over the course of their four-year degree courses, the students undertake study and various academic activities as well as having a social life, a job, and even an annoying roommate. Then of course, there is the weird stuff—ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and more… The challenge of course is that the students have to deal with both, but need to grow into being able to cope with both.

The ETU or East Texas University setting is fully supported by Degrees of Horror, a complete plot point campaign that builds and builds over the course of Study Group’s four-year degree courses. A plot point campaign differs from a standard campaign in that it is a framework of scenarios that advance the plot around which the Game Master can fit and run single scenarios not necessarily pertinent to the campaign’s core plot. These can be of the Game Master’s own design or bought off the shelf—several are available for the setting. The plot points are triggered under certain circumstances; it might be because the Player Characters visit a particular location or because of an action that they have taken. In Degrees of Horror the plot points are also built around areas of academic study and the year in which the Player Character student—or Study Group—are currently in. What this means is that in Degrees of Horror, the Study Group will encounter the first notions of the outré things to come in the first term as Freshmen and both the campaign and the Study Group’s investigations will come to fruition as Seniors at their graduation. However, what happens if the administration and the Dean at the university become aware of the Study Group’s activities? What if the Study Group manages to deal with a threat, but manages to bring outside attention to the strangeness going on at the university in the process and the Dean wants the members of the Study Group out of the way? The Dean cannot expel them, because that would arouse more attention, so what can he do? Well, he can send them abroad. Abroad where they will be out of harm’s way! Abroad where there are no supernatural dangers! Abroad where they cannot get into trouble!

East Texas University: Study Abroad offers not one, but four options for the Study Group which wants to see foreign climes and the Game Master who wants to take her campaign elsewhere—if only for a little while. The options include Costa Rica, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom. Each chapter includes background and history for the country, cultural differences, descriptions of the institutions where the Students will be studying, a number of Savage Tales (or scenarios) which the Game Master can run over the course of the Semester that the Study Group spends there, and full stats for all of the NPCs, monsters, and other threats that the Students will encounter as part of their investigations. One major cultural difference which is highlighted in each of the four countries is the lack of access to firearms, which may or may challenge some players and their characters in addition to the change in setting and culture. Of course, an East Texas University campaign is unlikely to use all four of settings in East Texas University: Study Abroad, so for those that go unused, the Game Master has a ready supply inspiration for Savage Tales of her own and the monsters to go with them. The anthology already includes a selection of fellow exchange students from around the world which the Game Master can include as NPCs alongside the Player Characters.

The anthology opens with Costa Rica. Geographically, this is the closest to Texas, and culturally it feels not dissimilar too—though of course, there are plenty of differences. The Students will be studying at the Tejas Learning Campus which turns out to be a secret outpost for the Sweet Heart Foundation, one of the major villains from Degrees of Horror. The isolated nature of the campus means that its research can be conducted away from prying eyes and the local cryptids, including Chupacabras, are suitable for both study and experimentation. These are not the only local cryptids that the Students will face, but they are the primary ones. All too quickly, the Students will discover why they have a newly and very recently appointed counsellor as their guide, have both a black dog and white dog stalking them, take one or terrible field trips, and discover quite why it is not a good idea to visit the local town alone—especially if you are female. Whilst there is a good variety of Savage Tales here, they still feel connected to the plots the Students left hanging back in Texas, almost as if they never left. Several of them could easily back to Texas, or at least the south west of the USA without too much difficulty, which cannot be said of the other three Foreign Exchange settings.

The Italy trip takes the Students to the northern city of Turin. Here they will find The Egyptian Museum, the Lombroso Museum—the Museum of Criminal Anthropology—which houses numerous remains of criminals and ‘madmen’, so is likely home to numerous ghosts, and of course, the Shroud of Turin. There are plenty of secrets too, mostly in the extensive network of tunnels below the city. Both museums feature in the first two Savage Tales, whilst the third takes the Students into the tunnels below the city. With just the three Savage Tales, all of them decent, the chapter feels somewhat underwhelming, but in fact, there is a lot here that the Game Master can develop herself, especially as there are several villains which the chapter does not make use of.

The horror in the Poland chapter is definitely Slavic and Jewish in nature—the Morowa Dziewica (murrain maiden), an old crone which bears the plague; the Dybbuk, or those possessed by a spirit; the Upir or ‘peasant’ vampire; and the Rusalka, spirits of women who lead others to their deaths. The Students will encounter one or more of these whilst studying in Białystok in the cold north east of Poland. Again, there is a lot of background and cultural detail here, but instead of sperate Savage Tales, this supports a mini-campaign consisting of five Savage Tales. The strangeness starts almost straight away, with an attack by a fellow student with a surprisingly explosive temper and creepy encounters at a puppet theatre, both of which bring the Students to the attention of certain interested parties, some who want their help, some who do not. The last three Savage Tales focus on the campaign, an investigation into a series of missing persons cases, which includes more than the one option for defeating the villain, one of which amusingly mundane. As a chapter and mini-campaign, the Poland chapter is a pleasing diversion away from the main campaign back at East Texas University if the Game Master is running Degrees of Horror.

The last chapter in East Texas University: Study Abroad is set in merry olde England at Ascalon University near the village of Uffington. The village, once the home of poet John Betjeman, is real even if the university is not, but the chapter incorporates plenty of the local features and history into its setting and accompanying Savage Tales. After a trip from Heathrow to Uffington, which not only highlights the fun of travel in the United Kingdom, but which is also literally beset by Gremlins, the Students settle in only to discover that death and strangeness has followed them! Like the Poland chapter before it, the Savage Tales in the England chapter before it builds towards a mini-campaign, but of course grounded in British folklore, legends, and the poetry of John Betjeman. It is perhaps not quite as focused as the campaign in the Poland chapter, but once it gets going, it has a sense of the bucolic and the ethereal to it. Again, this is a pleasing diversion away from the main campaign back at East Texas University if the Game Master is running Degrees of Horror.

Physically, East Texas University: Study Abroad is well presented and well written. It needs a slight edit in places, but the artwork is excellent and the maps clear and easy to read.

East Texas University: Study Abroad is solid addition to the East Texas University campaign setting and diversion away from the events of Degrees of Horror. Its use is limited though. The Game Master is unlikely more than one or two of these in an East Texas University campaign, but the anthology can be used in serval ways. As a diversion, but still with links back to the main campaign back home, as in the Costa Rica chapter; as a diversion of unconnected adventures as in the Italy chapter; or as separate mini-campaigns, as in the Poland and England chapters. The Poland and England chapters are the more engaging of the quartet, the Poland chapter in particular. Then of course, whatever that the Game Master does not use, she can draw from for inspiration for her own campaign, and there is always scope to develop further Savage Tales and drop them into the chapters as needed. Certainly, both the Poland and England Chapters could be developed into longer campaigns if the Game Master wanted to do so.

Extracurricular Esoteric Endeavours II

The publisher 12 to Midnight has developed its horror setting of Pinebox, Texas through a series of single scenarios written for use with Savage Worlds, the cinematic action RPG rules from Pinnacle Entertainment Group. In July, 2014, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the publisher released the setting through a particular lens and timeframe, that is as students at East Texas University. Over the course of their four-year degree courses, the students undertake study and various academic activities as well as having a social life, a job, and even an annoying roommate. Then of course, there is the weird stuffs—ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and more… The challenge of course is that the students have to deal with both, but need to grow into being able to cope with both.

The publication of East Texas University was followed by something to really challenge the students—a whole plot point campaign that builds and builds over the course of their four-year degree courses. A plot point campaign differs from a standard campaign in that it is a framework of scenarios that advance the plot around which the GM can fit and run single scenarios not necessarily pertinent to the campaign’s core plot. These can be of the GM’s own design or bought off the shelf. The plot points are triggered under certain circumstances; it might be because the player characters visit a particular location or because of an action that they have taken. In Degrees of Horror—the campaign funded by the same Kickstarter campaign as East Texas University, the plot points are also built around areas of academic study and the year in which the player character student—or study group—are currently in. What this means is that in Degrees of Horror, the Study Group will encounter the first notions of the outré things to come in the first term as Freshmen and both the campaign and the Study Group’s investigations will come to fruition as Seniors at their graduation.

From their very first week, the Freshman Study Group at East Texas University will begin encountering the supernatural. First a ghost, then more hauntings, and finally monsters, so that by the end of their first year, the students will be relatively experienced investigators into the supernatural, have gained a mentor, and got hints as to the mystery at the heart of both East Texas University and Pinebox. As they progress from their Freshman to Sophomore year and then to Junior and Senior years, the students will investigate more and more of the mystery and the conspiracy at the heart of the campaign. This involves both magic and science, a failed attempt to stop a previous threat, a mix of legends and monsters old and new, and a visit to Pinebox’s singular geographical feature, a permanently fire-ravaged area known as the Burn. There are twelve plot points or scenarios to this campaign, organised into three per year. They follow one after another, so what triggers them is time and having played the previous part.

Now at just twelve parts and at just past fifty pages in length in a ninety-six page book, the Degrees of Horror campaign feels a little short. Indeed, if you were to play through the campaign in order straight at between one and two sessions per plot point, with a session per week, the campaign would last no more than between three and six months. Fortunately, this issue is addressed with another twenty Savage Tales. These include encounters with vampires, weird insects, zombies, curses, ghosts, and more. They also have more stringent requirements that must be met before the Dean—as the GM is known in East Texas University—can run them. These include the year that the Student Body is in, activities such as those involving a fraternity or sorority, a character’s Major like Science or Literature, and so on.  Some are also sequels, not just to Savage Tales given in Degrees of Horror, but also to separate Savage Tales available from 12 to Midnight. This includes a sequel to ‘Last Rites of the Black Guard’, the very first adventure from 12 to Midnight, so the Study Group can go right back to where the story of Pinebox began in gaming terms and and explore that.

To be fair though, the fact that some of the extra adventures that can be run as part of the Degrees of Horror campaign have to be purchased, is not all that much of an issue. Not not only does the book itself contains plenty of adventures, but there are also several short adventures available for free for the East Texas University setting and that in addition to the shorter adventures generated using the rules in the East Texas University sourcebook. So essentially, the Dean does not necessarily need to buy the other adventures as there are plenty available between those in East Texas University and Degrees of Horror as well as online, though if he wants to get the fullest out of the campaign, he may want to purchase the others. Either way, what the Dean has between the three sources is a good mix of adventures that provide variety in terms of both actual threat and degree of threat. Any or all of these adventures are easy to slot into the Degrees of Horror campaign around its plot points and give the campaign a nicely episodic structure that will build story and campaign over time.

Rounding out Degrees of Horror are the full write-ups and stats for the major NPCs in campaign as well as various monsters that the player characters might encounter. Physically, Degrees of Horror is a full colour hardback like East Texas University. It is well written, comes with an index, and is an easy read. The artwork is good, but perhaps rather cheesy in places—the cover in particular. If there is an issue to Degrees of Horror it is that an extra map or two would not have gone amiss, particularly of the base of operations that the Student Body acquires during the campaign and some handouts would have been nice too.

East Texas University presented all of the rules and background to run a campaign at an American university in which the students have to cope with the academic and social life as well as having to face the horror of the supernatural. It should be pointed out that the horror and the supernatural in Degrees of Horror—and thus East Texas University—is fairly vanilla. It involves ghosts—lots of ghosts, vampires, spirits, possession, demons, as well as a local legend or two, and whilst this may not be most radical treatment of the horror genre, the scenarios are varied, fun, and well crafted. Above all, Degrees of Horror shows the Dean—or GM—how to put rules and background of East Texas University into practice with a well structured and enjoyably fun campaign.

Extracurricular Esoteric Endeavours

East Texas University offers all of the prestige and amenities of a twenty-first century educational establishment with the balmy climate of Southern USA and the charm of small town America. Located just outside of the town of Pinebox, it also offers encounters with ghosts, lycanthropes, vampires, witches, and spirits as well as an esoteric library, but of course, none of this makes the academic curriculum or the university prospectus. So when it comes to exorcising their room-mate possessed by an angry spirit, hunting a lupine stalker on campus, or thwarting a sorority coven hell-bent on getting good grades without studying, then the average freshman is on his own.

This is the setting for East Texas University, a setting and campaign supplement for use with Savage Worlds published by 12 to Midnight through Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Funded via Kickstarter and coming as a slightly undersized ninety-six page hardback, this is a horror and supernatural campaign setting in which the player characters are freshman at East Texas University discovering that there is much more to the world than they had previous imagined—much more! East Texas University comes with everything necessary to run a campaign, but the Kickstarter campaign also funded a plot point campaign, Degrees of Horror, available separately and designed to take the players from Freshman to Seniors through four years of college and four years of extracurricular occult activity!

East Texas University nicely uses the mechanics of Savage Worlds to model the progress of a student through college life. This starts with it mapping the character ranks in Savage Worlds to the academic years of American student academia, so Novice equates to Freshman, Seasoned to Sophomore, Veteran to Junior, and Heroic to Senior. Where a student has to pass exams to advance academically, in East Texas University he also has to pass them to advance in  terms of Experience Points, that is, he cannot expend Experience Points until he passes his exams. Typically this will be in the student’s Major, a subject of study that can be anything from Agriculture and Anthropology to Science and Speech & Communications, but whatever it is, it should be reflected by a skill. Similarly, a student should also have a Minor, but can have two Majors if he thinks that he can cope.

A student’s ability to pass exams is measured by his Academics secondary attribute, which like the Charisma attribute has a default value of zero. It can be modified by various new Edges and Hindrances, such as Test Taker or A.D.H.D. Failing an exam gets the student into some difficulties, but passing it will gain him certain random benefits, such as learning something, making a new friend, or gaining Administrative Privilege. Other Edges and Hindrances cover everything from Local Favourite and Devout to Annoying Room-mate and Party Animal. East Texas University being a supernatural setting means that a number of appropriate Edges and Hindrances are given in addition to the mundane ones. They include Demon Slayer, Faithful, Aura Reader, and I See Dead People, and what is interesting about them is that most are only available when a student has advanced a Rank or two—both in terms of academic year and character experience. Thus player characters grow into the more outré aspects of the setting, rather than turn up and be able to fight evil straight after the freshmen's faire.

Further mechanics enable the Dean—the GM in East Texas University—to create fraternities and sororities and their primary function, whilst rules cover student allowances, gear and vehicles—the latter including a table of glitches for that second hand car, and extra-curricular activities. Even the extra-curricular activities can grant some benefits, for example, Gaming grants a +2 bonus to myth, lore, and supernatural Common Knowledge rolls whilst Party Hardy increases the student’s Charisma by by +2 and grants him the Connections Edge, but at a penalty to his Academics attribute. This is all is backed up with a quick guide to American collegiate life and structure for those of us who are not American.

Our sample character is a scholarship student who is having to count the pennies in order to get by, including sharing a dorm room and taking a part time job at the local supermarket stacking shelves. This is currently affecting her studies, but not too badly. Sometimes she gets weird feelings about places and people, but so far that is all that she thinks that they are. Her extracurricular activities means that she has little time for a social life, not helped by her overbearing room-mate.

Adrienne Carter
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigour d6
Skills: Driving d4, Investigation d6, Knowledge (Computer Science) d4, Knowledge (Journalism) d6, Knowledge (Literature) d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Repair d4, Streetwise d4, Swimming d4
Charisma: 0 Academics: +2 (+1)
Pace: 6” Parry: 2 Toughness: 5 Bennies: 3
Hindrances: Annoying Roommate (Big Mouth), Poverty, Second Fiddle
Edges: Multi-Tasker, Psychically Sensitive, Test Taker
Major: Journalism Minor: Literature
Extracurricular Activities: Part Time Job, Student Organisation (Newspaper)

From haunted dormitories and details about law enforcement on the university grounds, in the town, and the county to desolate strip of woods known as The Burn and the best bookshop in town, the setting’s gazetteer covers not just the campus of East Texas University, but also the town of Pinebox and the surrounding county.  It is divided across two sections, one for the players, the other for the Dean. He is also given the write-ups and descriptions of numerous NPCs, as well as notable supernatural creatures, the selection of the latter having a particular focus on demons and ghosts. These combined with the Adventure , Party, High Weirdness, and Research Adventure Generator tables, should give the Dean plenty with which to create adventures of his own. Of the tables, the Research Adventure and Party Generator tables feel like they will get used up fairly quickly, but the Dean will probably get plenty of mileage out of the others. Several sample adventure outlines created using the tables are included.

Now where another RPG might simply offer magic and spells, East Texas University only gives Ritual Magic—and that is a good thing. Spells or rituals need to be researched, they need components, and they need time. They cannot be cast just off the cuff and even learning the new Ritualism skill takes time as it cannot be purchased at the start of a campaign. It is also dangerous, a table being provided for potential side effects when the casting goes wrong. Worse, there is also the danger that any ritual might turn out to be black magic, and typically any spell that harms another person is, and casting it has the potential to corrupt a player character. Besides supporting the rules for ritual and black magic, several new powers are also included.

As well done as East Texas University is, it is missing two or three things. The first of these is a map of the surrounding county. There are maps of both the university campus and the town of Pinebox, but not of the county, which is odd given that the gazetteer describes the nearby towns and places of note. Second, there is no discussion of the events and things that occur over the course of each semester, something that would be useful for those of who did not attend an American college. Third, there is no discussion of quite where Pinebox and thus the university, is in relation to the bigger towns and cities, which does leave the setting slightly isolated.  That said, the supplement does much to capture the feel of Texas, what with the list of phrases and slang and so on.Despite these issues, East Texas University is a nicely presented, well written book.

It should be made clear what East Texas University is not and that is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. Now there is nothing to stop a group taking the rules in this supplement and making it so, but it would need some effort upon the part of the GM. After all, there is a Demon Slayer Edge already included. All it would take to set up this kind of game would be some adjustment.

Hunting monsters in RPGs is always challenging, but in East Texas University it is made more so because of the constraints placed on the player characters. Of course most of these will be academic in nature, but there are also social activities to distract the potential monster hunters, as well as social conventions that prevent them from running around armed for werewolfbear. Yet they are also occult and supernatural in nature, because the player characters arrive completely unaware of the town’s occult secrets and grow into the role of monster hunters, perhaps gaining supernatural abilities in the process. This is nicely modelled by the fact that the majority of them, along with magic, are unavailable at character creation. The design of magic in East Texas University also points to less pulpy tone and less flashy feel to the setting, one that feels more grounded than other monster hunting games—and that is due to the constraints placed on the player characters as part of the setting.

Overall, East Texas University is a pleasing and concise package. If you wanted to run a horror game set in the academic halls and small town of America, then this supplement is very good choice.