[Fanzine Focus XLIV] Back to BasiX – Issue #1

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

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Most of these retroclones are based on either the original version of Dungeons & Dragons or an edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. One such fanzine and one such edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons is Back to BasiX, ‘A new quarterly Fanzine dedicated to a simpler time of RPGs—covering the Basic and Expert editions of Dungeons & Dragons’, published by ThrowiGames, based upon the edition designed by Tom Moldvay and David Cook.

Back to BasiX – Issue #1 was published in June, 2017 and though designed to support all editions of Basic Dungeons & Dungeons though with a slight emphasis placed the Moldvay/Cook version of 1980. In ‘Publishing News’ the author notes the lack of new support for B/X Basic Dungeons & Dragons, referring back to 2007’s Labyrinth Lord from Goblinoid Games and the B/X Companion from Running Beagle Games as being the best available at the time, whilst giving a ‘Product Spotlight’ to the Moldvay/Cook edition of Basic Dungeons & Dungeons that he was given in 1981, noting that, “For me, it is the benchmark for all rulebooks; it is concise, has a clean layout style, and is full of inspiration.” and that “The cover illustration by Erol Otus is one of the most inspirational early images of roleplaying. That single illustration tells a story of adventure; treasure, heroes and a terrible dragon looming in the background made all my friends and I want to pick up dice and roll up a character.” What is interesting about this is that it captures a moment when this edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons was little supported, when the author and the Old School Renaissance had little idea of what was to come in 2019 with the publication of Old School Essentials by Necrotic Gnome that pushed the Moldvay/Cook edition to forefront of the hobby with a superbly presented and accessible update of the rules. Even seven years on, Old School Essentials continues to be a highly popular retroclone.

Back to BasiX – Issue #1 is short at just twelve pages long, but it packs in quite a bit of content. This starts with an ‘Interview with a Legendary Gamer — Merle Rasmussen’, the designer best known for designing Top Secret, but also the author of three adventures for Basic Dungeons & Dragons and Expert Dungeons & Dragons. These are X6 Quagmire!, XSOLO Lathan’s Gold, and BSOLO Ghost of Lion Castle. Given the few pages in the inaugural issues, it is no surprise that the interview is short, but Rasmussen gives a quick overview of his time at TSR, Inc. and expounds on how he enjoyed working on BSOLO Ghost of Lion Castle.

The ‘Winged Snakeman’ of Mythicology, the fanzine’s monster column, begins a serpentine theme that runs through the playable content in the issue. The creature is a merged species created by the failed experiments of a wizard or a spell gone wrong, which rarely lives for long. The snake theme continues with the inclusion of the Magic Sword, +1 vs. Snakes in ‘The Magic Shop’ and then in the ‘Quarterly Dungeon Crawl’. This is ‘Cavern of the Winged Snakemen’, a short scenario for three to five Player Characters of First and Second Level. It details a group of Winged Snakemen that have escaped an experiment and taken up residence in a small cave network. The wizard who created them is trying to find them and destroy them, whilst an evil Cleric and his acolytes have set up a shrine and recruited the Winged Snakemen. Local townsfolk are spreading rumours of the flying men being seen and this should be enough to spur the Player Characters to act. More of a location than an adventure, it is a simple, straightforward affair that is easy to drop into a campaign and use however the Game Master wants.

‘Spellbound’ discusses the choice and use of various spells. It asks if Game Masters let the players of Magic-Users, Elves, and Clerics in their campaign choose their spells or roll for them randomly? The author’s preference is for Magic-Users and Elves to choose theirs as they will have been studying and he has their players tell him which spells are being studied, whilst he has players of Clerics roll for theirs. His choice of spell to examine is Floating Disc, which with its limited duration is not always a very useful spell, and whilst it can carry a lot of weight, a Bag of Holding would be better. When a player selects it, he increases its duration which means a Magic-User has a better chance of getting out of the dungeon with it still running and carrying its load.

‘Crimson Abbey of the Broken God — Part 1’ turns the episode of the comic that follows, ‘Dungeon Delver’ by Travis Hanson into playable content. In the comic, three adventurers have set out on their first quest to retrieve a mysterious artefact from a long deserted abbey. In the comic, they do not get far before discovering a trapped secret door as a way across a chasm. The article gives the location as if written in a scenario and then the background and stats for the trio, a Dwarf, a Magic-User, and a Thief. A solid little introduction to the setting and its cast.

Physically, Back to BasiX – Issue #1 is well written and well presented. The artwork is decent and the cartography is serviceable.

Back to BasiX – Issue #1 is a solid introduction to the fanzine. The Back to BasiX Compilation collects the first ten issues in print whilst all twelve issues are available as a bundle and provides good support for any retroclone.

[Fanzine Focus XLII] Gamma Zine #4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The ultimate problem for Gamma Zine #4 is the gap between it and its previous issue. This leaves the fiction unmoored and requiring more work to remind the reader what it is about. Elsewhere though the content is good and it is useful, but the adventures warrant a bit more to make immediately useful and applicable to a Game Master’s campaign. The content is easily adapted, but better suited for post-apocalyptic roleplaying games with a drier, slightly less fantastic tone, such as Free League Publishing’s Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. It is debatable whether the wait for Gamma Zine #4 has been worth it. The content is good, but the adventures need some plot and some hooks to make them really useful.

[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] Gamma Zine #3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Fanzine Focus XX] Gamma Zine #2

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. As popular in the Old School Renaissance as the genre is, not all fanzines are devoted to fantasy.

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

Where Gamma Zine #1 began with a short interview with James M. Ward, the designer of both Gamma World and its predecessor, Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma Zine #2 starts with ‘An Interview with Luke Gygax’. This is not just because his father is E. Gary Gygax, but also because he is listed as the co-author of GW1 Legion of Gold, the very first scenario for Gamma World. What is interesting about the development of the module is that Luke Gygax was just nine or ten years old at the time the adventure was written. Thus we we read about his influence over the design of the module as well as the time he spent as a child with his father. Which adds a more personal touch to our views of the man who co-created Dungeons & Dragons and began the hobby.

‘New Horrors from the Wasteland’ provides two new monsters. One is the Chog, a canine creature which seems to adsorb radiation and expell it in its bite. The bad news for the Player Characters is that the stronger the intensity of the radiation it has adsorbed, the worse its bite! The other creature is the Dizard, a lizard-type known for its tenaciousness when attacking—it likes to get a grip and keep hold, forcing a Player Character to try and break that grip! Leather taken from the Dizard is also known to be sturdy and all but fire proof.

Gamma Zine #2 also continues adding something not found in Gamma World—a Class. Classes are not a feature of Gamma World, but ‘Class Option — The Wasteland Blacksmith’ shows how they could be added to added. Following on from Artificer from Gamma Zine #1, in Gamma Zine #2, this is the Wasteland Blacksmith who makes and repairs things from the wasteland junk, earning Experience Points for doing so, but does not gain as many Experience Points from mere combat. The rules are fairly basic, but it adds flavour and enables a player to add a skill and round out his character a bit more. ‘Artifacts of the Ancients’ in Gamma Zine #1 concentrated on weapons, but ‘Artifacts of the Ancients’ in Gamma Zine #2 focuses on tools and survival aids. So the Stimpack Drone is designed to be used to deliver doses of a healing agent by remote, but others have adapted it to deliver poisons and radiation and more! The Hop-Pack provides the wearer with short jumps, the collapsible axe is a handy tool, and the Survivor Armband is perfect for anyone wanting their Gamma World adventures to be a bit more like the computer game, Fallout!

Gamma Zine #2 comes with three adventures. The first is ‘Adventure #1 — The Millionaire’s Vault’ describes the vault where a millionaire from before the apocalypse hoarded his most valuable possessions. Unless the Player Characters are looking for the reputed  ‘Cure All’ said to be hidden in its depths, there is little reason for them to visit what is actually a converted missile silo. It is more of an adventure location and as an adventure location, would work well with ‘Adventure #2 — Paradise Island’. The island of the title is home to farmers and fishermen and is known to trade in foodstuffs, but when the Player Characters arrive they discover that the island has been attacked by pirates and their mercenary island. In comparison to ‘Adventure #1 — The Millionaire’s Vault’, and even though it is quite simple, there is a whole lot more plot in ‘Adventure #2 — Paradise Island’. The vault from ‘Adventure #1 — The Millionaire’s Vault’ could easily be moved onto Paradise Island, and ‘Adventure #2 — Paradise Island’ enlarged and expanded, perhaps to form a hexcrawl of its very own also using the three adventures in Gamma Zine #1. 

‘Adventure #3 — Rescue!’ likewise includes a bit more of a plot. It describes a pre-apocalypse, advanced detention facility and the idea in the scenario is that the Player Characters need to rescue someone held in one of its cells. It is quite detailed and should present a challenge to any Player Characters attempting to break or con their way into the facility. The map is a little cramped and difficult to read, and it does feel as it could have been better orientated on the page.

The issue also includes two pieces of fiction. The first is  ‘The Hunted, Chapter Two’ which picks up from the cliffhanger that ended in ‘The Hunted, Chapter One’. In the first part, Whyla and her faithful cybernetic hound, Arnold, were ambushed by bandits and this gives the payoff. Again it is nicely written and with the resolution of the first cliffhanger sets up another. Unfortunately, the other piece of fiction, though again decently written, is not just as engaging. ‘Opportunity of Lifetime, Prologue’ really sets everything up for the next part, detailing how a student is selected for an important scientific mission. Set before the apocalypse, not a great happens and at three pages in length, it is too long a read. Hopefully the next chapter provide a better payoff.

Lastly, Gamma Zine #2 gives the Game Master another ‘Artifact Use (Solution) Flowcharts’. The focus of this set is guns and ammunition. So there are flowcharts for identifying revolvers and semi-automatics, along with standard and advanced ammunition types. It splits ammunition types because they are easy to get mixed up. Of course, some groups will find them fiddly and annoying, but they are part of the mechanics to Gamma World, so having more of them is fun.

Physically, Gamma Zine #2 is neat and tidy. It is decently written and nicely illustrated with good art throughout. Each of the scenarios is accompanied by excellent maps.

If you enjoyed Gamma Zine #1, then the likelihood is that you will enjoy Gamma Zine #2. It provides excellent support for the first edition of Gamma World, as well as for post-apocalyptic roleplaying games with a drier, slightly less fantastic tone, such as Free League Publishing’s Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. It is not perfect though, there being a bit too much fiction and the adventures being more encounter locations than actual scenarios. This does not mean that they are not useful and the Referee can easily pick and choose how she uses the content. Certainly the adventures could be used to populate a hexcrawl of the Referee’s own devising. Overall, Gamma Zine #2 is continued solid support for Gamma World.

[Fanzine Focus XVIII] Gamma Zine #1

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed 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. As popular in the Old School Renaissance as the genre is, not all fanzines are devoted to fantasy.

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

The more begins with a short interview with James M. Ward, the designer of both Gamma World and its predecessor, Metamorphosis Alpha. Just a page long it gives a little history and background to the game, hopefully the author will return to ask the designer more questions. Then it is on to the gaming content, beginning with ‘New Horrors from the Wasteland’, four new creatures and species to add to your post-apocalyptic setting. They include the Spindling, a cross between a snake and a spider which scurries and bites; the Unipede, a slug-like thing with a tooth horn which is capable piercing the hard rock and metal it likes to consume—including the player characters’ equipment and armour, so akin to the Rust Monster then; and the Shuggnagarath is a bat-winged tentacled thing which flies the across the Wasteland in search of skulls to crack open and brain matter to feed upon. Lastly, the Moleman is a new intelligent species, which hoards and uses the ancient technologies it scavenges from burrowing into lost bunkers. So a perfect source of technological whatnots and gewgaws, as foes coming after the player characters’ best gear.

Gamma World is a game without character Classes. Gamma Zine #1 rectifies that with a ‘Class Option for First Edition Gamma World’. This is the Artificer, for which a character needs an Intelligence of 15, at least two beneficial mutations, such as Dual Brain and Molecular Understanding, which grants him a bonus to both find and understand technology. Although it states that members of the Class prefer to build their own technology, this is not explored in the write-up. Notably though, the Class does gain extra Experience Points for finding and identifying technology, but none for combat. This is followed by three new items in ‘Artifacts of the Ancients’, the Type-III E-Fist—powered brass knuckles, the Pulse Grenade, and the KnifE, a vibrodagger. All three are nicely detailed and come with decent illustrations.

‘Adventure #1 – MuTech Test Facility’ is the first of three adventures in Gamma Zine #1 which details a secret pre-war research base in the Appalachian hills. Designed for two to four characters, it is a chance for them to delve into some of the events leading up to the war. The facility is essentially a mini-dungeon, all robots and electrical traps, nicely detailed and ready to add to a campaign. 

‘Adventure #2 – The Hand’ is again dungeon-like, but makes use of the Molemen detailed earlier in the fanzine, so is stuffed with technology for the player characters to find. Designed for three to six player characters, it has a more organic feel than ‘Adventure #1 – MuTech Test Facility’. Not just because it is occupied by Molemen, but also because of its shape. All of its rooms and chambers are inside the concrete stone hand of a giant statue, which gives it a weirdly natural feel despite it being an artificial environment. The complex is also lived in and there are NPCs here which may attempt to interact with the player characters. This is an easier encounter to add to a game and much like a certain statue in Planet of the Apes serves to enforce the post-apocalyptic nature of the world the player characters are in. ‘Adventure #3 – Dark Knights’ is the scenario with the most background and so the easiest to tie into the background of the Gamma World post-apocalyptic future. Knights of Genetic Purity squads have been scouring the region in search of mutants to exterminate and one squad has reopened a coal mine near the village of Gallax. Designed for three to five characters, this is a small complex, but one occupied by an armed opponent. So this is much more of a combat adventure, but one supported by a stronger motive for the player characters to get involved in comparison to the previous two scenarios.

The other continues with ‘The Hunted, Chapter One’, a short piece of fiction which recounts a violent encounter between the protagonist and some motorcycle-riding bandits. There is a desperate tone to it as she scrabbles to defend herself with few resources to hand. It is nicely written and ends on a good cliffhanger, but the introduction could have been better handled. It is followed by a new set of ‘Artifact Use (Solution) Flowcharts’,  seven simplified flow charts to help speed up play when a player character has to items to work out what they are and what they do. This includes items of varying complexity and types of doors. These are quick and easy and work well with the earlier Artificer ‘Class Option for First Edition Gamma World’.

Physically, Gamma Zine #1 is neat and tidy. It is not only decently written, but illustrated with good art throughout and each of the scenarios is accompanied by excellent maps.


As support for Gamma World, First Edition, there is a lot to like about Gamma Zine #1 and fans of the old roleplaying will certainly appreciate the new content. For newer post-apocalyptic roleplaying games, the content in Gamma Zine #1 is perhaps drier in tone, certainly later editions of Gamma World or its thematic descendant, Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. This does not mean that it cannot be used with those roleplaying games—in fact, it would be very easy to add to them—but the Game Master should be aware that it is not quite as weird or as wacky. Overall, Gamma Zine #1 is both a good first issue and a good fanzine—hopefully, Gamma Zine #2 will be as good.