[Free RPG Day 2023] A Taste of the Moon

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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A Taste of the Moon is a story for Vampire: The Masquerade, Fifth Edition suitable for a coterie of four to six neonate Anarchs. It is the second title to be released for Free RPG Day by Renegade Game Studios after Cobra/Con Fusion for use with its G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game and its Transformers Roleplaying Game. It can be played through in a single session as a one-shot or worked into the Storyteller’s own chronicle. It is set in a city large enough to have had a meat-packing district, nominally an American one—but could easily be adjusted to the city of the Storyteller’s choice, whether that is in the USA or elsewhere. The scenario requires some set-up in determining the Sires of the particular Player Characters, but beyond that, nothing extra is required other normal preparation upon the part of the Storyteller. The core rules for Vampire: The Masquerade, Fifth Edition are required to play A Taste of the Moon.

A Taste of the Moon opens en media res. The Player Characters are together, waking to find themselves in a night club, the Velveteen Bunny, felling slightly strung out, the body of a ghoul in the same room with them. Did one of them kill the ghoul? Well yes, and which of their vampires exactly it was, is for the players to decide between themselves. Worse, the ghoul belonged to the sire of one of the Player Characters, so they have to go before the sire and seek absolution. The sire will forgive them in return undertaking a task for him, and that is finding samples of Cherry Moon, a new type of blood that does not spoil and gives the imbiber a fantastic rush. Blood spoils a few hours after being drawn from the source, so having a type which does not is huge advantage. The investigation will lead the Player Characters back to the scene of their crime, the Velveteen Bunny. The problem is that finding a source is difficult, but finding the actual source is a whole lot more difficult.

A Taste of the Moon is primarily set-up. There is good advice on how to set the scenario up and how to use it in play, and there is not one opening scene, but several. There are four alternate opening scenes which could be used instead of the given one, plus there are hooks which the Storyteller can develop if she wants to use the scenario as part of her Chronicle. These are followed by numerable complications, ranging from the various Player Characters’ sire wanting a sample of Cherry Moon, and as word spreads of the Player Characters’ interest, more and more local Kindred come out of the woodwork wanting some too. With the addition of a complication or three and a handful of further adventures, along with the stats for the antagonists, and what A Taste of the Moon actually is, is a toolkit to run the adventure. The plot kept short and simple, a couple of locations are described, and the bulk of the text is dedicated to NPCs that the Player Characters will run into and have to deal with as their investigation proceeds.

Rounding out A Taste of the Moon is the coterie of pre-generated Player Characters. There are six, a mix of thirteenth and twelfth generation vampires, consisting of two Brujah, a Caitiff, a Malkavian, a Gangrel, and a Toreador. Unfortunately, this is where A Taste of the Moon is disappointing. There are points where the dots in a Player Character’s skills does not match his description. For example, Melika Red is described as charming and brutally honest, but has no Persuasion skill and does have the Subterfuge skill. Then she has a single level in Presence, but it is attached to ‘Lingering Kiss’, a power not available at just the single level. Cassandra Barrantes has the roleplay hook of “Use Obfuscate to leave an awkward situation you don’t want to be part of.” but no dots in Obfuscate. The problem is that the mechanical design of the characters has been rushed and so they are full of inaccuracies. Now, this is not difficult for the Storyteller to fix—indeed, Renegade Games Studies has done exactly that with the PDF version of the scenario—but she should not have to. 

Physically, A Taste of the Moon is well presented. It is clean, bright, and tidy. The artwork is excellent. Barring the issues with the pre-generated Player Characters, A Taste of the Moon is a good set-up for a scenario—in fact, several good set-ups for a scenario—which are followed through with the plot. Once past the set-up, the plot itself is quite straightforward. Overall, A Taste of the Moon is solid support for Vampire: The Masquerade, Fifth Edition.

[Fanzine Focus XXXI] Loviatar No. 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 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. However, not every fanzine has to be for the Old School Renaissance.

Loviatar No. 2 was published in September, 2011. Written and published by Christian Walker, it follows on from, and expands upon, Loviatar No. 1, which was written as a response to the Old School Renaissance, but rather as a means to focus the author’s mind when it comes to running fantasy games. That initial issue was not written for any of the then available retroclones, such as Labyrinth Lord or Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay. Instead it is a hybrid between Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder, First Edition. Not mechanically, but rather between rules and setting, the author’s campaign being set in the Dungeons & Dragons setting of Forgotten Realms using Pathfinder, First Edition. If that sounds like Loviatar No. 1 was a mongrel of a fanzine, there might be some truth in that, but that is the author’s choice, and anyway, the point of the early gaming fanzines of the nineteen eighties which the modern fanzine revival so heavily draws from, was to present content from the editor’s own campaign world. Which is what the author is doing in the pages of Loviatar No. 1. However, Loviatar No. 2 goes further than simply continuing support for author’s fantasy gaming by providing support for other roleplaying games in fashion not often seen in today’s fanzines, let alone those of 2011.

Loviatar No. 2 carries the tag, “a zine about tabletop role-playing games”, as did the first issue. It did not really apply to that first issue, focusing as it did upon the one roleplaying game, but it certainly apples more to Loviatar No. 2, although this second issue begins where the first left off—with a scenario set in the Forgotten Realms city of Baldur’s Gate, but written for use with Pathfinder, First Edition. ‘Number Three Pigeon Street’ describes another building in the fashion of ‘At the Corner of River Street and Craft Way’ and provides a number of reasons why the Player Characters would want to visit the rundown down dwelling which stinks of bat guano. The first reason is that neighbours of the occupant of the house, the wizard, Thaddeus Blythe, have complained about the bats and the Player Characters have been hired to rid the house and thus the neighbourhood of them. It is simple enough set-up, but the local thieves’ guild has an interest in Thaddeus Blyth and because he refuses to move, then in the house. So it will take an interest in what the Player Characters are doing. The house and its occupants have a seedy, run down feel to them that adds another slice of life to any city-based campaign. Perhaps a bit long, ‘Number Three Pigeon Street’ would work well with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set too. The location includes full stats and descriptions of the NPCs as well every room in the house.

The fanzine then makes a radical change of tone and game style with ‘A Lonely Dance on the Cold, Northern Shore, Part 1’. Inspired by Saint Fina, this is a setting article for the World of Darkness, so specifically designed for storytelling play. It describes the city of Santa Fina, a California town on the Pacific coast astride the mouth of the Russian River, combination of Victorian-era architecture and blue collar industrialisation in decline, it has been designated a sort of retreat for the Kindred of San Francisco. It is also used as a dumping ground for members of the other factions which do not fit with the coteries found in San Francisco or further south in Los Angeles. Often cold and drizzly, the town is only accorded an overview here, the reader having to wait for future issues to explore any of its secrets. Nevertheless, a good start and hopefully worth the wait for the revelations.

The third and final piece in Loviatar No. 2 is ‘Eclipse, Lord of the Mountain’ and it is written for Steve Jackson Games’ GURPS! It describes the giant-like creature called Eclipse whose masters grew him in a vat and assigned him to watch over the small village of Silent Vale and its human inhabitants in the mountains and ensure that they do not explain why. He has no idea why and neither does the article really explain. Nor does it explain who the Masters are. Complete with full stats and details as you would expect for GURPS, Eclipse is and is not a monster. The task he has been set curtails the activities of the humans, but he only follows the rules as he has been programmed to do, so he is not necessarily a monster—though if the rules are broken he does do monstrous things. Eclispe is a really nicely designed NPC and should make for an interesting encounter for the Player Characters, their being none the wiser until the villagers explain how to live under the aegis of the giant so as to not antagonise him. Much like the earlier ‘Number Three Pigeon Street’, this situation is easily adapted to other settings, but the Game Master will need to supply the missing explanation as to who the Masters are.

Physically, Loviatar No. 2 is neat and tidy, and in general, well presented. Artwork is very light, but is fairly heavy in its style, as is the cartography. Photographs are used for the World of Darkness article. The oddity is that again, like Loviatar No. 1, the fanzine does carry a number of adverts for roleplaying games and things, many of them long out of print, even in 2011. These include the Dragonbone electronic dice device, Gen Con XI (from 1976!), and Car Wars. There are far fewer of them this time, so they do not give the fanzine a weird, out of time feel as they did with the first issue.

Loviatar No. 2 is better than Loviatar No. 1, reaching for a surprisingly broad audience. After all, there are few groups who would have played all three of the roleplaying games catered for the pages of the issue. ‘Number Three Pigeon Street’ is still the standout, a run down, slice of life in a seedy city that could still be run today and nobody would question it. The other entries are not as useful, but serviceable in themselves. Overall, Loviatar No. 2 is a good little read.